There came a point when bison skulls began appearing in my life -- suddenly I had four in my studio, for various reasons, and they're usually not easy to come by. I began to keep one in my car, as I felt it would be good to have on hand for outdoor sketching. I discovered that there had been a birds' nest in the brain cavity; it was packed with twigs. Inside were two white feathers, which appear in the foreground of this painting. It moved me to think that more than one life had been lived within this skull: that of the bison, and that of the bird.
 I made a study of this skull in a field of big bluestem, Manitoba's provincial grass. A field is generally thought of as a "nothingness," a boring component of landscape, but when you're actually out in one, there's a wonderful vitality and timelessness to it. Especially when there's a breeze to ripple across all the prairie grasses and plants, and the sun shines, and the only sound is the wind.