Detail View: Art and Art History Student Work:

vrc_20210528_007

aahi0022232

Martin Ross (Jacket Portrait) with Red-winged Blackbird Pair

full view

Artist statement: We understand sentiment as a feeling, exaggerated and self-indulgent by nature, of tenderness, sadness, and nostalgia. It’s a complex emotion, straddling the inexpressible space between joy and sorrow. We’re afraid of being sentimental, but there’s an irrefutable authenticity to these emotions related to personal histories. I am consumed by sentimentality. // I am creating work that visually presents as (or perhaps somewhere near) wildlife art. Though, to refer to my work solely as wildlife art could certainly be misleading. The images conjured by the term typically involve feral creatures captured in some exaggerated state within an untamed wilderness. I consider works wherein fantasy moments are created depicting large deer in heterosexual pairings bedding in the snow, and trophy-size pheasants flying up dramatically over harvested corn stalks. Most often these types of wildlife works are heavily romanticized, and plainly some degree of kitsch, but they are successful –– certainly valid –– because they operate through a visual language rural Americans are fluent in. The commodified wildlife arts simply aim to raise the rose-tinted lenses between the country-person and the world around them. // Of course, I haven’t lost comfort in the visual language of wildlife art, and I haven’t lost appreciation for my upbringing. Though, in having distanced myself, I’ve gained a more critical perspective. Queerness is not absent from the American hinterland. In fact, I see it everywhere. The trouble comes from a lack of acknowledgement, and the bleeding of human heteronormative perceptions over the natural, fluid environment. I am using the visual language and motifs of this genre to communicate queer themes, identities, and storylines on the rural American stage. By altering, subverting, or correcting this commonly heteronormative imagery, I emphasize queerness and flamboyance within these rural spaces. Conversely, in generating wildlife art, I extend an invitation to those who may feel excluded by the elitist nature of the art world and its institutions.

2021

creation

Robert Buehler (American, born 1994)

non-binary

Thesis not found on file (last checked: 02/27/2024)

MFA 2021, Art and Art History

rural areas

birds

gender (sex role)

sexuality

wildlife

narrative (artistic device)

family history

paintings (visual works)

paintings

acrylic and oil on stretched canvas in reclaimed frame, slip cast porcelain with acrylic and oil on custom oak shelf, lace

20 in (H) x 16 in (W)

University of Colorado Art Museum

exhibition

Boulder, Colorado

© Robert Buehler

© Robert Buehler

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University of Colorado Boulder

Art and Art History Visual Resources Center

Art and Art History Student Work Archive

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