Loma Buffalo, oil on linen, 2001, 13" x 15"
John Well-Off-Man (Chippewa/Cree) was born in Havre, Montana, in 1950. A photographer, printmaker and painter, he graduated with a B.A. degree from The University of Montana in 2005. His work has been included in many regional and international exhibitions, and is included in the permanent collections of the Westphalian State Museum of Natural History in Munster, Germany, and the Montana Museum of Art & Culture.
Though the impact of the Lewis and Clark Expedition was felt dramatically and irrevocably by Native American communities, the reverberations affected the very landscape as well. Westward expansion by colonists let to the destruction of ancient forests through clear-cutting and overgrazing. Zealous, greedy, over hunting by the interlopers led to the destruction of the once innumerable herds of bison that were the very foundation of Native life on the Plains. John Well-Off-Man's expressive painting, Loma Buffalo, turns our attention to this unfortunate consequence with his portrait of a lone buffalo in an empty field.