Bandit

We have placed ourselves in the heart of Yellowstone in Wyoming during the winter. Although many have warned about the remoteness and so on, I have done nothing, but enjoy the time being removed from the life that we find so common in the country. There has been a bit of a challenge in making and creating ideas through word and art, but the challenge has merely opened many doors.

During the renovation of the Lake Hotel there was a portion of a door removed and set aside as it had various names and dates on the back. I was staring at the plank one day and an image appeared upon just as it was always there. Later that day I took the plank and painted what I saw using a new material to me - watercolor. Before the paint was even dry the plank was hanging just above where it lay that morning.

Quite a back story was created as I painted the image; there can be many more as well, but as I painted the Bandit's story emerged: Years before the painting the Bandit was a father and a husband. He had three children on the mountain side above a small town in the Texas-Mexico boarder. It was a time that the border was still in dispute and a militia of Americans took to the town thinking them all of Mexicans and would have none of it. The Bandit was not concerned with with either nation and let the militia know that. Due to this his family fell slain to the gun as he was forced to watch. He broke free as they lit his house a fire and he has been on the trail ever since. He does not seek vengeance and he does not seek forgiveness. Now he seeks to spread the evil that was so forced upon him.