The Art of Judy Larson


Second in the
Forces of nature Series
Air, particularly in the form of wind, can spook even a savvy horse more than any other element. The wind provides protection to the wild horse, carrying smells of danger, and giving it time to escape to safety. The white buffalo also depends on this same protective power which the air provides. In the world of the Plains Indians, the white buffalo was revered and especially sacred. Deemed the most acceptable gift that could be obtained to offer to the Great Spirit, this rarest specimen of all buffalo, when encountered, was always killed for sacrifice. Ceremony and ritual accompanied the taking of a white buffalo. Although different tribes used the skin in various ways, all of them prized the white buffalo for its powerful spirituality. Today, when a white buffalo calf is born, it is visited by Native Americans and acknowledged as a symbol of the return to the old ways. It is a sign of answered prayers and that people are coming back to religion and spirituality.

AIR AND ESCAPE

Size	Type	Edition	Price
16 X 26	Giclée Canvas	200	$650


Truly a family unit, a wolf pack is almost always composed of an alpha male, his alpha female mate and their offspring. During mating season, both the alpha male and female will fight to prevent others from breeding with their partner. Their monogamous relationship prevails until death, illness or injury prevents them from mating, or until one is ostracized from the pack. Courtship between the pair is playful, affectionate and devoted. After the annual mating, the alpha female will select a suitable site for her den near water, which the nursing mother will need. She prefers a wooded area to aid concealment, and the same location may be used throughout her breeding life, and perhaps, by successive alpha females within the same pack. Preparations on the den begin about six weeks after conception, three weeks before her pups are born. And so, the cycle of life endures, through the alliance, friendship, bond and cooperation of The Alphas.

THE ALPHAS

Size	Type	Edition	Price
24 X 18	Giclée Canvas	300	$650

American Horse, Oglala Sioux chief, is a study of adaptability. Although born on the Northern Plains, he became an American citizen when he was 67 years old. He fought brave battles for his people, but when he was 27 years old, lead the battle for his people in peace. He had five wives, including the daughter of war chief Red Cloud, but when only one living wife remained, joined the Episcopal church. He rode beside great chiefs in battle, including Red Cloud and He Dog, then rode briefly in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. He fought against the invaders of his land, then traveled to Washington, rode down Pennsylvania Avenue and took part in treaty delegations. He lived free on the land he loved, then spent half his life on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
"As I was researching American Horse, I found, once again, how easy it is for me to embrace the nobility, love of land and the rights of people, peace and loyalty of the Native American spirit. I see the same qualities in those who have chosen to serve today and feel that they, too, are our leaders for tomorrow."

AMERIAN HORSE

Size	Type	Edition	Price
18 X 24	Giclée Canvas	100	$650
15 X 20	Paper	250	$245


The pairing of an alpha male and alpha female represent a wolf pack’s genesis, but it truly becomes a pack as the offspring arrive and grow. Judy Larson first introduced us to the Elsinore Clan in 2007 with The Alphas. Nearly two years later we meet the next generation with Brothers and Sisters.
The core population of most packs is comprised of the alphas’ offspring. This bond of blood is one the prime sources of the affection and mutual aid upon which these groups are so dependent. From birth, these brothers and sisters will compete for social standing with in the clan and assume roles and responsibilities uniquely theirs. The disappearance of a wolf from a pack such as Elsinore will leave a hole not easily and quickly filled.
Such is the case here with Brothers and Sisters. We can immediately see three of the Elsinore Clan offspring lurking among the aspens. Close examination will reveal Judy has concealed a fourth, though this member of the pack remains only in spirit. She is no longer with the pack, but the memory of her place and role within it still lingers.
Judy Larson stands alone in skill and storytelling mastery of her chosen medium: scratchboard. No medium demands more planning and precision in execution, yet her subjects are alive with a freedom of form that redefines those limitations. That skill combined with a passion for the wilderness and all things wild makes owning a Larson an essential part of any art collection.

BROTHERS AND SISTERS

Size	Type	Edition	Price
28 X 16	Giclée Canvas	150	$650


When artist Judy Larson came across the Blackfeet Indian legend of The Crow Tipi, she was enthralled with the various elements of the story and how they might come together in a painting. In the legend, there was a brave warrior who stole horses and guns for his tribe.The head chief of the tribe became jealous of the warrior’s success and glory and used witchcraft to bring bad luck to the man. Three times the brave man rode out to battle, and three times he returned on foot, because his horses had run away.
As the warrior lay sleeping after returning home from a raid, he dreamt that a man came to him and said,“You should not have had to walk home alone these nights. I see you have given a share of the meat from a buffalo you killed to my children, the crows. For your kindness I will give you two things: the power to become a chief of your tribe and my own specially painted tipi, The Crow Tipi. Go a little way from here, and you will find horses. ”The warrior became chief of the Buffalo Dung band and the Crow Tipi remains in his tribe to this day.

THE CROWS TIPI

Size	Type	Edition	Price
16 X 12	Giclée Canvas	300	$395


Fifth in the On the Run Series
In her On the Run series, artist Judy Larson focuses on animals that either find, or have found, themselves in dire circumstances. The Defiant is inspired by a heartbreaking chapter in history.
“The year was 1858, and several companies of soldiers under the leadership of Colonel George Wright were engaged in a punitive military expedition against the Native American tribes, Yakama, Spokane, Palouse and Coeur d’Alene,” explains Judy Larson. “On the morning of September 8, Colonel Wright and his troops spotted a large cloud of dust which revealed the position of 800 Palouse horses. Although a valiant effort was made by the tribes to drive their horses into the mountains, after a fierce skirmish, the majority of the herd was captured. Although it was a crime to kill a horse on the frontier, it was Wright’s job to subdue the tribes’ powerful hold over their land and to demoralize them. It took the better part of two days to shoot, club and kill all the horses and, as the Native Americans watched helplessly from the hills, they could not believe what they saw. Today, along the banks of the Spokane River, a monument marks the site that became known as Horse Slaughter Camp.”

THE DEFIANT

Size	Type	Edition	Price
19 X 23	Giclée Canvas	200	$650


“Native American legends have always intrigued me,” says Judy Larson, “especially those involving talking animals. So it was difficult not to be enthralled by one such story, a Cheyenne legend in which an eagle is trapped in a dead elk’s antlers. After asking for help from a warrior who is out hunting, he is set free. The eagle is so grateful that his life has been saved that before flying away, he tells the man to go to the other side of a hill and to look below. There the warrior sees his reward, a beautiful stallion covered with black and white spots exactly like an eagle’s feathers.”
Spotted eagle feathers, highly prized by Native Americans, come only from the tail section of immature golden eagles. In Eagle’s Gift, Judy has replicated the eagle feather pattern on the horse’s coat and has hidden therein an eagle or two.

EAGLE'S GIFT

Size	Type	Edition	Price
18 X 24	Giclée Canvas	200	$650


“Out of the millions of horses that have shared our country's history, only a few have distinguished themselves enough for their names to be remembered. Among these select few is Ebenezer, Chief Joseph's renowned Appaloosa racehorse. Red roan in color, with large blood-red spots on his white rump, he was not the prettiest horse in the herd, but he could run like the wind. So famous was he that newspapers in Walla Walla and Lewiston, Washington recorded each time Chief Joseph rode him into town. Everyone with a good, fast horse of his own, whether frontiersman or Native American, dreamed of the day when his horse would beat Chief Joseph's Ebenezer. But, alas! Ebenezer won all his races well out in front of the best horses in the region.
The black horse portrayed in Ebenezer and the War Horse honors another of Chief Joseph's horses. Although his name has not survived through time, he was special, as well, for he was the horse that Chief Joseph chose to ride to surrender.”

EBENEZER AND THE WAR HORSE

Size	Type	Edition	Price
24 X 24	Giclée Canvas	200	$695

ELK DOG TIPI

Size	Type	Edition	Price
12 X 16	Giclée Canvas	200	$395

FIRE AND FLIGHT

Size	Type	Edition	Price
27 X 16	Giclée Canvas	250	$650


“Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” as “inalienable rights” is a concept that could only be born in a place where the land was abundant and its bounty teeming. Nothing is more American than wild horses ranging the West and wolf packs prowling the forested wilderness. Yet, these symbols of all that is wild and free are not only as threatened today as they have ever been, but are being rounded up and disposed of in a fashion they have never before had to fear: from the air.
In Judy Larson’s Flight, a herd of wild horses races away from the droning aircraft circling above. This method of rounding-up mustangs such as these is part of the program to further cull the 33,000 horses still living in the wild in 10 Western states. Another 30,000 are already in captivity. The Bureau of Land Management wants to cut this total number of horses by half!
Judy has hidden within this herd another who has even more to fear from above, an Alaskan wild wolf. Exploiting a loophole for “predator control” in the Federal Airborne Hunting Act of 1972, Alaskan hunters have found a way around the Congressionally-banned practice of hunting animals like the wolf from the air. Many hunters consider the practice, at a minimum, unsportsmanlike, since it violates the "fair chase" ethic of hunting. More significantly, they consider it inhumane since airborne gunmen rarely get a clean (i.e., relatively painless) kill.

FLIGHT

Size	Type	Edition	Price
27 x 20	Giclée Canvas	150	$625


Loyalty is a passion, a belief, a gift bestowed only upon those who earn it. Few leaders fired the vehemence of loyalty greater than Tatanka Iyotake, the Lakota Chief Sitting Bull.To The People, loyalty was not only a characteristic of man, but also extended to the natural and animal world. In his final years, Sitting Bull proudly rode Circus Horse, a gift from Wild West impresario Wild Bill. Some scoffed at the horse, trained to act and dance in the renowned traveling show but, with the talent of any great leader, Sitting Bull recognized in Circus Horse the fire of a true noble spirit. This was the late 1800s, the time of the Ghost Dance, a ceremony to rid the land of white people and restore the Indians’ way of life.The American government feared that Sitting Bull would join the movement and bring the Lakota with him. Indian police were sent to arrest him, and a battle quickly ensued. At the sound of bullets, Circus Horse began the act he had been trained to do: a dance of pawing the ground and throwing his mane.To the Lakota it was far more. Circus Horse’s great white body remained at Sitting Bull’s side throughout the battle and, after the Chief was struck down, danced for hours more in respect for the fallen man. It is said that Circus Horse was possessed with a spirit, for throughout the entire battle, this imposing target was not struck by a single bullet. Discover the face of loyalty in Judy Larson’s The Gift.

THE GIFT

Size	Type	Edition	Price
27 X 13	Giclée Canvas	200	$545


The first offering in The Noble Spirit Series
It has been said that in the early mists of dawn they were invisible; in a snowstorm, undetectable; in battle, unseen. Then, like the spirits for which they were named, they inexplicably appeared.
Ghost Wind horses carried big medicine. Along with their stealth, they were exceptionally intelligent. They were trained to be fierce combatants, but, like warrior-poets, they were also renowned for their complacent and docile nature. Their value to the tribe was known to be greater than that of any human.
Distinguishing each Ghost Wind were two to four, or a handful of dark spots, but only on its left side. "Lightening" or vanishing stripes graced the cheekbones of the face. The skin of the body was silver white, the hair more like fur, and dark "stockings" covered the legs. The direct father/son breeding line traced back to the Northwest's Siletz and Talimook peoples, who bred their horses with Russian (as opposed to Spanish) spotted horses. Quite rare, they did not appear in every generation.
Considered to be forever wild, a Ghost Wind was never "owned," but simply watched over by a caretaker or custodian. Still, its training was intense. It could be counted on to continue an attack against a foe, even after its rider had fallen. Yet, directly after battle this forceful warrior would be placed in the care of an eight, or nine, or ten-year-old child. Such was the training and nature of this remarkable horse that, returning directly from the violence of warfare, a small child could handle it. A noble spirit, indeed.
The Noble Spirit Series
Concealed imagery has long been a hallmark of a Judy Larson composition, a second part to the story she tells in any painting. With "The Ghost Wind," however, both the portrayal, as well as the story, begin and end with the beauty of, and the passion for, the unique horse itself. The Noble Spirit Series will interpret the nature of legendary North American animals without the aid of concealed imagery.

THE GHOST WIND

Size	Type	Edition	Price
32 X20	Giclée Canvas	200	$695

HE DOG

Size	Type	Edition	Price
18.5 x 32.75	Paper Print	3250	$245

KINSHIP

Size	Type	Edition	Price
31 X 18	Giclée Canvas	250	$650

MEDICINE CROW

Size	Type	Edition	Price
17 X 17	Paper Print	2500	$245


The Misfits is the sixth and final offering in Judy Larson’s On the Run series, which focuses on animals in dire circumstances. “Perhaps by revisiting a few of these incidents in our country’s history, we will not be destined to repeat the events of the past, but will seek to value our wildlife,” says Larson.
“The Misfits refers specifically to tragic fate of the many thousands of wild horses in Central and Southern California that once roamed the state where I live,” Larson says. “Several times a year, I travel through the Central Valley of California, where crops are now grown and cattle and sheep graze. Since reading of the thousands of horses that ran free upon that land, I find that I cannot pass through without imagining what a sight they would have made and what an appalling tragedy it was to lose them all in violence. I’d like the viewer to engage with the eyes of The Misfits horses and to remember that there are still wild horses on public lands today that love their lives and freedom every bit as much as those wild horses of yesteryear. The horses in The Misfits represent a few of the survivors, as well as some of the ancestors, of the wild horses of today.”

THE MISFITS

Size	Type	Edition	Price
30 X 20	Giclée Canvas	200	$695


Iyuptala: Ee-yoo-P’TAH-lah. "The Native American’s relationship with the elements, the earth and its inhabitants were viewed as "one with." He moved through nature as he did with his animals, not as an owner or as a subduer, but as an equal, a companion, a brother. Total trust existed between the Native American and his horse, with whom he was "one with." They moved together as one. They understood each other. They listened to each other. So powerful was this understanding, this respect, that the very rocks in One With speak of this relationship. Nature, the animal, and the Native American are as one unit. There is no question. The Native American and his horse belonged here, "one with" each other, with their Creator, and with His creation"
These are the words of artist Judy Larson whose eloquence is clearly not limited to her art. Judy's passion has earned her the standing as one of America's leading artists. Her technique, the painstakingly detailed process of scratchboard, lends itself wonderfully to her art.

ONE WITH

Size	Type	Edition	Price
20 X 24	Giclée Canvas	150	$595


Full of mystery and power, the Native Americans of the north understood that the wolf was sacred. They called him “Brother,” and knew in their souls that he was an integral part of the land. Yet the wolf, by its very nature, incites passions for and against it. Today, the gray wolf occupies only 2% of the land he once ranged, and bounties still exist on wolves in some states. In the latest of her “On the Run” series, Judy has us encounter a pack of three wolves that has silently woven its way through a snow-covered forest. As they move towards us, a fourth brother joins them, a spectral ancestor and spirit of the wildness that this noble creature so embodies.

THE PURSUED

Size	Type	Edition	Price
26 X19	Giclée Canvas	200	$650


In 1919, the United States Department of Interior ordered the Crow Indians to kill all wild horses on their reservation land, sacred ground that had been leased by the government to cattlemen. No Crow could abide by this order, a demand akin to asking a man to kill his own brother. In 1923, following a final ultimatum, the United States government hired local cowboys, joined later by Texas outfitters, to kill the horses on a bounty basis–four dollars for the tip of a horse’s ear. During the next seven years, the hired guns killed more than 40,000 horses, including the Crow’s personal mounts.
By 1930, the great and powerful Crow tribe was bereft of its horses, its culture severely damaged. To the Crow, whose livelihood depended on their prized horses, this tragic event was more devastating than a military defeat.
The Resisters is the third offering in Judy Larson’s “On the Run” series, a selection of images focusing on animals caught in dire circumstances.

THE RESISTERS

Size	Type	Edition	Price
25 X 21	Giclée Canvas	200	$650


Slow Bull was a respected Oglala Sioux subchief who joined his first war party at the age of fourteen. At the age of seventeen he captured one hundred and seventy horses from the Apsaroke. That same year he received medicine from buffalo in a dream as he slept on a hilltop—not fasting or meditating, but resting from hard travel on the warpath. Over the course of his storied lifetime he engaged in fifty-five battles with rival tribes and his distinctive features can be seen in the shoulder of Judy Larson’s bull buffalo.
“I personally ‘met’ this bull buffalo in the middle of a thunderstorm, roaming wild with three hundred other buffalo on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Montana. Some of the oldest buffalo were nearing thirty-five years of age and most of the old bulls stayed by themselves, but this seasoned veteran had come to join the herd as rutting season began. He was massive and awesome.”

SLOW BULL

Size	Type	Edition	Price
22 X 16	Giclée Canvas	200	$595