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Call of the Wild: The Art of Parks Reece
April 01, 2008
Mike England
Imagine a wildlife artist who possesses both extraordinary artistic vision and off-the-wall irreverence, whose unique perspective blends the sacred and the slapstick onto a single, synthesized canvas. A man who is uncompromisingly serious about his work, but whose work is uncompromisingly funny. Think Van Gogh meets The Far Side—and you might begin to understand Montana artist Parks Reece.
After twenty years of “adding levity to gravity,” Reece has just released his first published collection, Call of the Wild: The Art of Parks Reece. Combining 114 paintings and lithographs with superb writing by Tim Cahill, Scott McMillion, Greg Keeler, and Myers Reece, Call of the Wild is a beautiful, impressive, and thoroughly amusing book, as original as the artist himself.
Reece is often referred to as “a modern-day cave-painter,” a description that couldn’t be more apt. The creatures of Montana’s wild landscapes—elk, bears, mountain goats, rainbow trout—move through the artist’s wry imagination and into his work as if driven by mythological forces. In “Waiting for a Rainbow,” a bald eagle gazes pensively on an iridescent arc of swimming trout. “Prairie Pegasus” is a dazzling depiction of a winged buffalo soaring through the night sky. The book’s namesake, “Call of the Wild,” shows a magnificent bull elk, framed by lofty peaks, bugling into a telephone that dangles from a pine tree.
Equally impressive are Reece’s striking backdrops. Surreal, impressionistic, teeming with intricate swirls and vivid hues, the coral-like patterns lend a mystery and depth to each composition. These distinctive settings simultaneously expand the dimension and focus the viewer on the subject. It’s this quality of Reece’s art, perhaps more than his inimitable wit, that has earned him his own place in the regional and national art community.
Call of the Wild can be found at bookstores around the state and online at Amazon.com. You can also contact the Parks Reece Gallery in Livingston at 406-222-5724, or visit .
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