Hush

Wolf print of a pack in repose

The second wolf print in a series

“W hile popular imagery tends to focus on the hunt, I’ve found that an animal’s quiet moments offer clues to the more profound qualities of life. When an animal lives its life plan, a sense of purpose and nobility becomes evident. I think it’s supposed to be like that for us too”.

Yeesh! Why do artists write bilge like this?!?

I guess I felt I needed some kind of excuse as to why I didn’t draw the more ‘predatory’ side of wolves. Y’know, something where they glare menacingly or are slavering over some just-out-of-scene prey who’s about to get it in the neck.

I’ll tell you why: because I couldn’t find any…

The only thing that’s harder to get hold of is a Mountain Lion.  Wolves just aren’t around every corner. And despite being an outdoorsy chap, I’ve seen a wild wolf exactly twice.

The First Time

The first wolf I ever saw was while driving that stretch of Highway 2 in Northern Minnesota that feels about three times as long to drive as it actually takes.  It was an overcast, snow-covered afternoon, and I came over a low rise to see a giant dashed dog, and a stupid dog at that, sitting on the center line. I pulled over to honk at it to get the hell out of the way, and saw that it was no dog, it was a wolf.

It was just sitting there, on a frozen highway, facing east with a sort of sleepy look on its face. I pulled along side it, and it turned to look at me with the bluest eyes I’d ever seen. They almost looked fake.

The wolf rolled those eyes, snorted, muttered something under its breath, and reluctantly stood up. If it’d thought of it, I’m sure it would’ve spat. It glanced dismissively at me, shook its head, said ‘phfft’, then sauntered to the opposite ditch and into the trees.

Even if I’d had a camera, and had the sense to use it, all I’d have is a few shots of an uncooperative wolf who, far from looking predatory, emoted irritation and of pissedoffedness.  Not much art there.

The second time was on a small island near the Alaskan Panhandle, which I mentioned in a newsletter story, and which I’m sure will get put into a blog post, if I can get those Spotty Internet Trolls to do whatever it is they do around here…

So I’ve had to content myself with ‘sleeping wolves in the game park’.

Besides, wolves in the wild tend to make crappy references; they’re usually thin, filthy, scraggly, mangy and tick-riddled, and apparently easily chapped and uncooperative – not the kind of thing most folks want to put on the living room wall.

Ask me how I know…

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