Why Red Earth?

“The Red Pond”

The background color in the header and footer on this website represents the red earth of western Oklahoma, the land of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. One of Rena's sons, Dick West, or Wah-pah-nah-yah, an artist of some renown, often portrayed this red earth in his landscapes and other paintings. Dick was one of the first Native people to receive a Masters of Fine Arts from Oklahoma University, and had built a reputation for his traditional Indian art as well as leading the way for Native artists to venture into abstract art.

Not wanting to verbally spar with the museum, Dick responded in the simple and practical way that was so characteristic of his nature. He got a small box, dumped some red Oklahoma dirt in it and sent it to New York.

One of Dick West's oil paintings, The Red Pond, portrayed a pond dug out of the red soil of Oklahoma, and was painted in the abstract/realism style. In this style objects and forms may be abstracted, but colors retain their natural state.

Subsequently, Dick submitted The Red Pond and another painting to an abstract/realism show at one of the more prestigious New York art museums. He later received a letter from the museum stating that it could accept one of his paintings, but could not accept The Red Pond because obviously soil could not be the red color portrayed in that work.

Presumably this prestigious New York institution thought that a Native artist from Oklahoma did not know the definition of abstract/realism. Not wanting to verbally spar with the museum, Dick responded in the simple and practical way that was so characteristic of his nature. He got a small box, dumped some red Oklahoma dirt in it and sent it to New York. Soon thereafter, The Red Pond with its portrayal of the red earth of Oklahoma was entered into the show.