Wood Art by Sam Two Bulls

Sam Two Bulls - Artist (Oglala Lakota)

Every artist has a special technique all their own.

Oglala Lakota artist Sam Two Bulls, uses a style that not only sets his work apart, but also commemorates the richness and power of the buffalo.  Mr. Two Bulls paints with a cellulose sponge that he cut a buffalo our of and uses it as a stamp instead of typical brushstrokes.

“It’s kind of like my signature,” he said.  “Nobody else uses it.”

“I always incorporate the buffalo sponge to paint the buffalo.  It creates a lot of depth,” he said.  “If you look closely, it goes from red to orange and yellow.  It’s more or less the sunburst.”

Sam Two Bulls graduated in 1991 from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he developed his artistic style.  He sold his work in New Mexico for a year at tourist attractions in Taos, Santa Fe and Albuquerque, then he moved back home to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.  He comes from a family of artists and it was his love of his people and his roots that brought him back to the reservation.