SHOSHONE SCHOOL
Members of the Shoshone community wishing
to learn how to paint a scene on a hide are
instructed to sit and watch. Skills are taught not
with words but through silent demonstration.
Stylized characters This vital image of a buffalo hunt is made with pigment
painted within dark outlines on a stretched elk hide. Stylized hunters, horses,
and buffalo circle and charge the perimeters of a skin "field." Men at the
center chant or dance to the beat of a drum. Each color is evenly
distributed throughout the scene, creating harmonious balance
and helping our eye to dart around.Horses It is interesting to note how the outstretched limbs
of these horses echo European images of the running horse
before the sequence-photographer Muybridge taught us to
understand their movement differently.Buffalo Hunt
19TH CENTURY
SHOSHONE SCHOOL