I was blessed with great parents, who encouraged me to develop my ability in art. They were always among my most ardent supporters. Dad, even when facing the end of his life, kept asking me for business cards because he passed them out to hospital staff. My mom has told me numerous times I used to sit in front of a large aquarium we had, starting when I was 3 or 4 years old, and draw the fish for hours (I guess I have some life drawing experience I forgot about!). Also, when I was very young an aunt gave me a book on how to draw animals, both realistic and cartoon. I don't know how many times I drew every picture in that book. I still have the remnants of it - no cover, pretty ragged, yellowed and some pages missing - but boy did I learn a lot from it.

In Hollywood western movies - and don’t get me wrong, I love those movies and wish they’d make more of them - an accurate representation of the black cowboy has never really been portrayed. Historically, black cowboys in the old west made up nearly a third of all cowboys. In fact, some drives were made up entirely of black cowboys (except for the trail boss, according to historians). A cowboy of any color had a hard life, but the black cowboys lived a more dignified life than their counterparts in the south during the same time period. They ate the same food, slept around the same campfire and did the same back-breaking work as the white, Mexican and Indian cowboys. In fact, one could say the cattle drives of the old west were a true American "melting pot".

Most people are aware Bill Pickett invented the sport of “bulldogging”, which is still used in rodeos today. But there are also active organizations like the Oakland Black Cowboy Association and the Black American West Museum in Denver which promote the contributions thousands of other black cowboys have made and continue to make to the fabric of our history.

In my quest to paint the American West and everything it represents, I’ve been privileged to paint some great American cowboys. This painting, my most recent, is of a gentleman who works in the Fort Worth, Texas, stockyards. He’s a perfect representative of his predecessors who played a major role in building the West.