Seven or eight years ago when I lived and served in the Diocese of Los Angeles, I began teaching a class on Art and Spirituality and the marketing of Native American Indian Art. From these two experiences, coupled with my own art-making, I found that individual minds are opened by art. Art can transform the individual. When Native artists create art that is not necessarily tribally themed, non-Native viewers often voice surprise. In this process some stereotypes fade away. I try to respond authentically to what I feel called to create in art. I hope that whatever the resulting piece is, that it causes the viewer to think. In my painting I leave it to the viewers to interpret for themselves what it says to them. Are the tears Whipple’s own from mourning? Or are they the tears of God raining down upon him?
Bob Two Bulls, on “The 38 Tears of Bishop Whipple,” a piece responding to the 150th Anniversary of the brutal massacre of 38 Dakota warriors, the largest mass execution in U.S. history occurred in Mankato, MN