“A Native American in headdress is recognized world-wide as even a greater Western icon than the tepee,” relates Tom Gilleon on Turning Bear. “And just as I do with my tepee paintings, I’m focusing on color, shape and form to tell my story, to evoke that emotion.”

The graphic nature of "Turning Bear" gives this painting the feel of a serigraph, a cross between the pop-art that Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein popularized in the 60s.Yet, for all the emphasis Gilleon puts on deconstructing the figure into its most basic shapes and colors, he makes sure that the eyes themselves are sharp and focused. The further out in the image you travel from the eyes, the less detail you’ll find. “Part of what I’d like people to walk away with is the understanding that, at the heart of it, the icon evolved from and represents a real people."