“Abstract shapes tend to dominate my work,” offers Tom Gilleon, “rectangles, triangles, circles and squares. Even when I paint a figure, especially one with a headdress, the focus is generally on the shape the headdress creates. In this case, it is just the opposite; it’s the man’s profile that really grabbed me. In fact, I cropped off the edge of the feathers on his headdress in the painting so they wouldn’t distract from his face. Handwritten on the back of the old photograph was ‘Lakota, Pemmican’ so I’ve always assumed that was this fellow’s name. This painting is about the years, the miles, the knowledge, the experience, the sorrow, the pride and the joy etched in this man’s face that was his life.”