An oil painting on a big 4x4′ canvas. In the wilderness of SW New Mexico, there used to be two Mexican gray wolves who were extremely in love. They were an Alpha Pair, and they with their offspring were labeled the "Middle-Fork Pack" for many years. One year, the alpha male got caught in the jaws of a foot trap. He was injured so badly that he had to be captured and have his left foreleg amputated before he was re-released into the wild again. SIX MONTHS LATER, his mate was shot by a poacher, and her injuries were so great that she had to be captured, her left forelimb amputated, before she was re-released into the wild as well. And you know what? They both just went right back to being wild wolves and made puppies that Spring as though nothing had happened. A mirrored pair, wearing government collars and tags, their bodies mutilated by human failing, both wildly devoted to each other until death. I liked to visit the Middle Fork Pack the most because the evidence of their unique story was written all over the landscape: The three-pawed tracks in the dust along forest roads; The splayed print of a wolf balancing on one forepaw as it stooped to drink from a muddy pool; Piles of elk bones in tight ravines where the pair had used a geographic bottleneck to trick and trap their enormous prey. They were my inspiration and role-models for how to persist and keep living. I tried to capture their spirit on this big canvas back in 2013. . . . . . . .
