Hail to the Thief comes from my series of work featuring themes from the American Old West, Untamed! That series began back in 2016, spanning a couple of years, and featuring a rogue’s gallery of drifters, grifters and outlaws who were mostly up to no good. I have ambivalent feelings about Old West mythology and visuals, both kinda in love with it all and yet also suspicious and leery of the subconscious hold that era seems to have on this nation as it wrestles with struggling to cope with change in the 21st century. Untamed! reflects America in all our absurdity.

This particular piece holds a nice mystery for me: Is he threatening, scared, tired, confused? The mask covers all but the eyes - a prescient nod to the pandemic future that would come a few years after I painted this. We’ve become so used to seeing just the eyes and wondering what lurks beyond. This bandit here is pretty fine with you not knowing.