This painting is a still life of a Brahman cattle skull I have hanging in my foyer with the skylight casting noon sun shadows down across the wall. My grandfather on my mother's side (Dan Autrey) sent me this skull over 30 years ago from family ranches in Osceola County, FL. When cattle died on the ranch before being sent for slaughter, they’d bury the head in the ground for a few months and the bugs would pick it perfectly clean to this gorgeous natural state. As I was always enamored with ranch life, he had this one done especially for me and sent as a surprise. It arrived to me in a giant box with packing peanuts when I was about 8 years old. Since that time, it has traveled with me to every place I’ve lived, from boyhood to college dorms to Washington, DC to Los Angeles. I call it a “Bridge Between a Brahman and a Boy” because it is a bridge between a bygone era of life and the little boy that admired it. I have often fantasized about how neat it'd be to share this with him in person if he were still alive. Unfortunately we cannot bridge the time, but its a sweet sentiment to think about.
