The Buffalo Series

RE: THE BUFFALO SERIES, an on going series of painting, drawings, sculpture, and prints.

Jack Cassady’s “The Buffalo Series”, is about nature, freedom, sadness, strength, and the splendour of the beast.

The concept originated in 1986, being from the prairies, the artist grew up with stories of the buffalo. A fellow from down the line, (we called him Buffalo Bill but his real name was Mr. Lepage) had a pet buffalo, and would bring it to the annual fair. For 5 cents you could ride the animal. This and Indian Days were a high point of the summer for Jack. The same animal was later immortalized in the short story “The Queen’s Hat”, By W.P.Kinsella in the book “The Moccasin Telegraph”. This series also deals with the attempt at understanding the great white hunter and mans inhumanity to beast, the mass destruction of a life form, the relationship between the animal and the aboriginal tribes of the west (the connection to nature and the culture of man).

In 1987 “Buffalo ABC” won the 7th Mini Print International, Cadaques, Spain. The series of mini prints has been exhibited around the world, and is in the collections of a number of museums. An edition of “Buffalo ABC II was published in Barcelona, by Taller Galleria Fort, and an edition of “Buffalo 9,10,11 was published by Georgian College, Barrie, Ontario.

In 1992 the paintings “Buffalo #5 & #6 were exhibited in “Art Contemporain du Canada”, in Paris, France. A number of the prints and paintings are in private collections.

Jack started this series as a need to express his feeling about being from the west; he chose the buffalo to portray these feeling.