Rick Bartow
Hunter's Dream, 1999
drypoint on handmade Mitsumata paper
image 4 x 4 in
paper 12 x 8 1/2 in
paper 12 x 8 1/2 in
Edition of 20
BAR0903
Copyright R.E. Bartow Trusts
$ 500.00
Edition # 11/20 is framed with bamboo moulding and UV3 plexiglass for $800 and included in the 'What The Crow Knows' exhibit. Unframed editions are $500. Published by Moon &...
Edition # 11/20 is framed with bamboo moulding and UV3 plexiglass for $800 and included in the "What The Crow Knows" exhibit. Unframed editions are $500. Published by Moon & Dog Press.
In 1997, Bartow talked about the Yaqui deer dancers:
"In northern Mexico and southern Arizona native people known as Yaqui have a ritual in which dancers wear deer masks and headdresses during Pascola season. Both the mask and headdress used in hunting or rituals are manifestations of transformation. Transformational myths are a theme central to Bartow's work. Often, his images portray people becoming animals, or vice-versa. These drawings express Bartow's fascination with the world's powerful spiritual images of transformations found outside the Wiyot nation."
In 1998, Bartow talked about his print, Deer Hunter’s Dream, and deer symbolism:
"First, we always pray for all creation. The old hunting rituals were stripped away so now we simply pray for the deer spirit. We also apologize for our lack of wisdom, and say how sorry we are if we have caused offense in any way.
In this image the deer and the hunter merge. Both know each other. Maybe the hunter is singing I yeh kwee Po-ok. (Hello, haven’t seen you in a while deer.) The hunter dreams, but is not asleep."
In 1999, Bartow spoke of his relationship to the deer:
"Po`ok is the Yurok tribe’s word for deer, Wiyot is holakw`. In hunting deer on the coast, the hunter often wore a deer hide headpiece with the antlers still attached to act as a disguise and a decoy. The background looks like a human, perhaps a hunter. The dark green stripe is because the way that the painting revealed itself was centered too far left. It’s unusual in the use of the umbers and peculiar greens. Also a bit odd in the semi-reality approach.
I make rattles for ceremony from deer hooves. Joe Fedderson, who hunts deer and has a much better eye than I do, creates wonderful renderings of antlers and I, who do not hunt because I use parts of the animal for ceremonial purposes, do not and don’t wish too anyway go hunting, must attain information from photos and fleeting glimpses of the deer - so my antlers are a bit odd."
In 1997, Bartow talked about the Yaqui deer dancers:
"In northern Mexico and southern Arizona native people known as Yaqui have a ritual in which dancers wear deer masks and headdresses during Pascola season. Both the mask and headdress used in hunting or rituals are manifestations of transformation. Transformational myths are a theme central to Bartow's work. Often, his images portray people becoming animals, or vice-versa. These drawings express Bartow's fascination with the world's powerful spiritual images of transformations found outside the Wiyot nation."
In 1998, Bartow talked about his print, Deer Hunter’s Dream, and deer symbolism:
"First, we always pray for all creation. The old hunting rituals were stripped away so now we simply pray for the deer spirit. We also apologize for our lack of wisdom, and say how sorry we are if we have caused offense in any way.
In this image the deer and the hunter merge. Both know each other. Maybe the hunter is singing I yeh kwee Po-ok. (Hello, haven’t seen you in a while deer.) The hunter dreams, but is not asleep."
In 1999, Bartow spoke of his relationship to the deer:
"Po`ok is the Yurok tribe’s word for deer, Wiyot is holakw`. In hunting deer on the coast, the hunter often wore a deer hide headpiece with the antlers still attached to act as a disguise and a decoy. The background looks like a human, perhaps a hunter. The dark green stripe is because the way that the painting revealed itself was centered too far left. It’s unusual in the use of the umbers and peculiar greens. Also a bit odd in the semi-reality approach.
I make rattles for ceremony from deer hooves. Joe Fedderson, who hunts deer and has a much better eye than I do, creates wonderful renderings of antlers and I, who do not hunt because I use parts of the animal for ceremonial purposes, do not and don’t wish too anyway go hunting, must attain information from photos and fleeting glimpses of the deer - so my antlers are a bit odd."
Exhibitions
2006 Tears and Rain, Oregon Historical Society NFS2025 "Mark Makers: Rick Bartow & Seiichi Hiroshima, Moon and Dog Press," Froelick Gallery, Portland, OR (December 2025-January 2026).
