Image of the Week: Winter Bounty
© Durga Yael Bernhard
I just sold this painting, to a couple who plan to give it as a housewarming gift to a dear friend of theirs. I am most honored. This is my second version of Winter Bounty – a depiction of the food chain that shows the living nourishment of wild plants spun into the flesh of a dead deer – and the vitality of summer shining in the depth of winter.
I'm both a hunter and a forager by nature. I love venison, and I also gather and use the wild plants that deer eat – dandelion, red clover, violet, chickweed, and so many others. I was an active hunter in my thirties and forties, shooting wild turkey, deer, and black bear with both a shotgun and a bow. Wild, organic meat was the only meat my family ate – sparingly, as it was hard to get, with vegetarian meals in between. The meat I hunted also provided a significant part of my dog's diet. Nowadays I don't hunt much anymore, but I still get venison in the form of road kill – not nearly as unsavory as you might think, as most deer are killed by an injury to the head or spine, resulting in less damage to the meat than incurred by an arrow or bullet. I'm a crackerjack butcher, thanks to the training I received from my long ago mentor, a skilled and dedicated hunter.
Few artists get to participate in the cycles of life and death as closely as I have – both as a mother of three children and as a hunter. I'm deeply grateful for these privileges. Hunting is an intensely primal activity, and naturally found its way into my art. The doe that inspired this painting came to me as a gift. I did not have time to butcher on the day she died, so I dragged her into the woods near my home. That night, it snowed. When I returned the next morning – a December day much like today – the deer looked so peaceful, blanketed in white. As I knelt to butcher the doe right there in those snowy woods of muted grey, brown and white, the meat seemed alive with the colors of summer that were woven into it. The richness of this transmission of life was indescribable in words – so, I painted it.
My previous version of Winter Bounty, painted some years earlier, is shown at right. Here, a human is added to a food chain in the form of concentric circles. Both the deer's body and its environment are enfolded within the human's. This painting was not inspired by a particular deer, and is not as focused on the contrast of bright summer energy within the darkness of winter.
But in creating both paintings, I strove to express my gratitude for the blessing of such incredible winter bounty.
Hunting and death are hardly mild subjects, and many people do not find comfort in them, much less nourishment. I respect that, and welcome your response to these two paintings.
As with most of my images, Winter Bounty is available as posters and cards.
Wishing you a peaceful week –
D Yael Bernhard