Diabolical Bunny.
Alien Chihuahua.
Hipster Bug.

Portrait of Troy Nickle as Badger Boy.I began working on the Buckhead series as drawings incorporating the same buck’s head. I’m an avid collector and spent months tracking down a myriad of buck, deer, and fawn stamps from across North America and England but always returned to this particular image as it best represents the model buck: majestic, stately, and proud. It was also a head begging for the addition of a body. I decided to explore this concept of the masculine ideal in the wilderness with the epitome of human masculinity: the classic Hollywood actor. The resulting mash-up, while both idiosyncratic and amusing, allows for a juxtaposition that further explores the constructed-ness of “nature” and it’s link to particular notions of beauty, rugged-ness, and virility. The plywood support for the paintings provides a literal foundation of manufactured rawness on which these nature/culture hybrids float.