Robert “Shoofly” Shufelt is perhaps the finest western pencil artist I’ve ever seen. Heck, he might even be THE finest pencil artist I’ve ever seen, western or otherwise. His pencil drawings look like photographs. As a matter of fact, we have a book of his pencil drawings and a friend of ours was looking at it the o...ther day. I pointed to a little framed collection of his works that we have hanging on the wall and said, “Those are by the same guy.” In the collection, three small post card sized drawings are arranged over one of Shufelt’s drawing pencils. The two on the outside are just figures with no background, but the middle one is of an entire scene, background and all. Russ, my friend, said, “So the two on the outside are drawings?” Nope. The entire display is of drawings. His work is phenomenal. However, the work is not so amazing as is the subject matter. What in the world would make people want to hang drawings of guys who live below the poverty line, who work in the worst of weather conditions, who perform their tasks with the most archaic and rudimentary equipment they can find, and who live in borrowed tenant housing? Worse yet, why would people want to hang those drawings right on their living room wall for all the world to see? Western art is kind of a funny thing. In the world in which we live, we are usually glorifying the rich, the famous, the top notch business folks, the athletes. However, I have never seen investment banker art. I’ve never been to a gallery that displayed bronzes of lawyers poring over their briefings. I’ve never even seen a show devoted entirely to paintings of teachers. Admittedly, Norman Rockwell turned a lot of Americana into entertaining artwork, but his was more Americana, not focused on a specific occupation, let alone an occupation that pays less than minimum wage and breaks young men down and turns them into old men. Regardless, if you look around our house, those working stiffs grace our walls. We’ve got the Shufelt drawings; a painting of a couple of cowboys on a wild horse round up (we literally watched Randy Nottingham paint that one from beginning to end as he manned his booth at the CNFR one year), a Buck Taylor painting that he gave me to put on the cover of my second c.d.; a Rowdy Barry painting; a painting of Mandi’s dad ponying a horse; and the list goes on. So, really, we’ve got some of the lowest paid guys in the country enshrined on our walls. Seems almost in opposition to what the world esteems. God does the same thing in the Bible with its heroes. He takes some of the most unlikely stars and because of HIS strength, they do mighty things. My favorite is Gideon. He was adamant about not being a soldier, but despite Gideon’s doubt, God caused him to defeat one of the world’s greatest armies with three hundred men, some broken jars and a lot of noise. David was the ruddy kid out herding sheep. Joseph came out of slavery and prison to save the day. God uses the most humble to do great things simply because he wants to show HIS strength, not ours. We can say great prayers, memorize the bible, do all the right things, but if it’s not God doing it, it’s nothing. That’s why he uses the most humble of heroes. Maybe that’s why we like to glorify the cowboy in art. He’s a humble figure (some definitely more than others) who performs great tasks. He’s not rich, but if you ask any one of them, they’re rich in different ways. When Jesus came into the world, many expected him to be born into royalty, to come with great fanfare. No, he was born in a rock cave that housed critters, and when he was born, they laid him in a feed bunk. Nevertheless, he’s my hero. He’s my hero.
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 02:51:58 +0000
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