Thunder Bay II

Truman Lowe

1997

wood

5' x 5' x 4'

Kahlhamer, born to Native parents and adopted by a German-American family, was raised in Arizona and Wisconsin and considers his art “tribally ambiguous”. In 2000, the museum funded a residency that would inform an exhibition of his work. Kahlhamer spent a week near Wyalusing Park at the junction of the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers and created these watercolors. During his stay, he witnessed a large congregation of hawks and eagles circling overhead which appear alongside his graffiti like smiley faces throughout the watercolors.

The artist fondly remembers the resulting exhibition in which he included stuffed coyotes. In reading the exhibition’s comment book he clearly remembers someone writing: “lose the coyotes please.”

Credit

Museum Purchase, funded by Richard E. Brock