Since the late 1940's, the night sky above Jackson Hole, Wyoming has been graced by the radiant glow of one of the most distinctive constellations of the Western sky: the bucking bronco above downtown’s Cowboy Bar. A gas explosion in the basement during the 1950's and subsequent cost of the repairs prompted the owner to add “Million Dollar” to name of this storied landmark.

Blessing’s contemporary take on the Neon West is creating a stir with collectors, and "Raising the Bar" is no exception. For decades, the facades and businesses on Main Street in the small towns that punctuated those endless miles of open space were lit by ionized gases in bent tubes of glass. These names, shapes and glowing forms have burnt themselves into our collective memory of the modern West’s landscape.

Blessing’s "Raising the Bar" captured the highest bid at the 2015 C.M. Russell Museum First Strike Auction, selling for nearly eight times its estimated price.