Guitars, motorcycles and rock ‘n’ roll music. Not how a country song usually starts, but for painter and tattoo artist Sara Bloodwolf, they’re all part of her unconventional journey to the art of the American West. She’s painted everything from pinups on World War II bomber jackets to custom guitars and poster art for some of the biggest names in music. Pair that with a dash of mysticism and a side of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show,and you’ve got one of the most unique voices in Western art.
All That Blooms in the Desert, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 in.
After her standout showing at Cowgirl Up! in Wickenburg, Arizona, Bloodwolf is settling into the label of “contemporary Western artist,” and doing it with a smile. “Hearing ‘contemporary’ is really kind of shocking to me because I do not see it or try it. It’s just something that everyone was saying [at Cowgirl Up!]—‘Yeah, we really wanted to get more contemporary work in here,’” she says. “Apparently that’s what I’m doing and I didn’t really notice it because I’m just making art the way I see fit. I don’t have any kind of genre I’m trying to fit it into.” Bloodwolf notes that her style was definitely an outlier at the show.
If contemporary means using fresh colors and dynamic compositions, then perhaps the shoe fits. On the flip side, Bloodwolf’s subject matter celebrates the romantic West: Native Americans, cowboys and gals, gunslingers, big desert landscapes, starry skies, horses, skulls, bison, snakes and all the usual suspects.
An Arizona Tale, oil on canvas, 36 x 18 in.
Shown at last year’s Coors Young Guns, An Unexpected Camp Guest nods to the macabre side of the West while works like His Mountain Blanket and Thunder Peak Woman hint at the symbiosis between humans and nature, showcasing Bloodwolf’s dexterity with complex design.
All That Blooms in the Desert, which received the Museum Purchase Award at Cowgirl Up! this March, also blurs boundaries between the figure and the land. The judges chose Bloodwolf’s work for its execution and originality, notes Sigler Western Museum chief curator Tricia Loscher. “They love the strength in the woman and the beauty of the desert around her,” Loscher explains. “I think that as we become more and more technology based in our societies and everything, to have a work like that…it’s so important and integral that we keep our connections to our natural resources, the land around us and our communities, and really recognize that we are one species among many.”
An Unexpected Camp Guest, oil on canvas, 20 x 16 in.
The purchase award was not expected by Bloodwolf. “I was not prepared for that whatsoever, because again, it was so different,” the artist says. “The idea on that one was the woman is in the desert, but she also is the desert. So you can see the flowers growing through her like the Western shirts with the big embroidered flowers…and her hair is turning into the clouds. So the connection that we have to the earth and the land—there’s no separation.”
Thunder Peak Woman, oil on canvas, 30 x 24 in.
While collectors might not know Bloodwolf by face or name—she fancies herself a “professional recluse”—they may have seen her work at The Russell in Montana, Women Artists of the West Invitational at Oklahoma’s Woolaroc Museum, or the Museum of Western Art in Texas. Her Wild Bill painting has been featured on a Colter Wall concert poster, and through art, she’s been backstage at pretty much every concert she’s wanted to attend.
“Times have changed quite a bit,” says Bloodwolf. “I was at Guns N’ Roses and the wives of the artists were all on a couch in the back and they were crocheting. One of them asked if I would illustrate a children’s book for them. I was like, absolutely not,” she laughs.
Wild Bill, oil on canvas, 36 x 24 in.
In addition to running her own tattoo parlor in Louisiana (which she shares with a mostly friendly ghost), Bloodwolf keeps the company of an “off-kilter” sort, she tells us. She considers lowbrow artist Robert Williams a mentor and critic in addition to a great community of online and in-person artist friendships. “Our art is all very different, yet we all have a common ground in trying to make things work visually with paint,” says Bloodwolf.
After a long weekend in Wickenburg, where she also won the Western Art Collector Award of Excellence, Bloodwolf added a few new friends to the list. “I’m not used to people being so complimentary and congratulatory when something goes well for you. I’m used to very much the opposite,” she says. “So it was wild to have pretty much every artist there congratulate me and find me in the crowd and say something nice about the award. So that was really lovely. I’ve talked to a few of these artists online because I’m never around, and when I meet them in person, they’re absolutely darling.”
The Old Schofield, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in.
“She’s fabulous. You know, she really stands out, I have to say. To see the direction where she’s going, I can’t wait,” Loscher says of Bloodwolf. “I think she’s definitely an artist to watch and I’m very excited for her and her future in painting, and I’m so thrilled she’s a part of our Cowgirl Up! family.” —
See more from Sara Bloodwolf on her website: www.sarabloodwolf.com
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