Twelve Animal Guards: A Lunar New Year Series

Besold, Bobbe. Year of the Earth Dog (Inset). 2018. Gouache and pencil, 11"x 9".

"The world is alive, everything has spirit, has standing, has the right to be recognized.”

— Winona LaDuke

WHITNEY SMITH   What motivated you to create this series of paintings?

BOBBE BESOLD   While waiting to pay for some chopsticks and a paper kite in Toronto’s Chinatown, at a favourite shop I frequented often, the owner asked me what year I was born. When I told him, he nodded and smiled. “Ah, a Tiger! You will never lose anything to fire!” It turned out he was also a Tiger.

SMITH   What is the significance of animals and birth years for the Chinese?

BESOLD   The Chinese honour the twelve zodiac signs — the Twelve Animal Guards of the Heavenly Gate. Each of the twelve zodiac animals offer wisdom, guidance and assistance to human beings. I feel supported by Tiger, aware of Tiger's attributes, short comings, and alliances that being born in a Tiger year offer me.

SMITH   So the Tiger was the first animal year you painted?

BESOLD   Yes. For my 60th birthday in 2010, I researched the Tiger, learning that each year the zodiac animal carries their own element — whatever it might be: water, metal, earth, wood or fire — and colour, as well as offering guidance for everyone in the new year. The painting I created that honoured Tiger was reproduced on a color copier and mailed to my friends and family, including you. Since then I have done a painting each Lunar New Year for one of the twelve animals.

SMITH   Can you talk about your experience of working on these, what it's like when you're in the act of painting these animals?

BESOLD   The process of painting engages a whole different part of me. I hesitate to use the word prayer, that’s not really right. It's more of a dream state. I’ve always felt that as a painter. Often times when I’m painting, a dream will come back that I had the night before that I’d forgotten about. The ego is shut off most of the time when I'm painting, as it’s not useful.

SMITH   Tell me more about that.

BESOLD   The ego gets in the way. In Michael Pollan’s book, How to Change Your Mind, he was talking to a scientist about the how the brain looks when you take a psychedelic, and she showed him the brain patterns that are displayed in that situation. The patterns show that the ego is shut off while you are in the psychedelic experience, and they look the same as when one is meditating! Like when a musician is playing music, the focus is on the music and the playing. It’s not, “I am this person and I live in this place and I do all these things.” That’s not it. It’s just you, the essence of you, you as a musician, you as an artist — your spirit, who you are within.

SMITH  And your most recent painting in the lunar new year Chinese guardian animal for 2024, which we're adding since first publishing this article, tell us about that?

BESOLD  The Green Wood Dragon. It is tripterous (three-winged) and the only mythical animal of the twelve Chinese Guardian Animals. Be flexible. Grow. Listen. Learn.

The Paintings

Besold, Bobbe. Year of the Earth Wild Boar. 2019. Gouache and pencil, 11"x 9". 2019.

Besold, Bobbe. Year of the Wood Horse. 2014. Gouache and pencil, 11"x 9".

Besold, Bobbe. Year of the Red Fire Monkey. 2016. Gouache and pencil, 11"x 9".

Besold, Bobbe. Year of the Metal Ox. 2021. Gouache and pencil, 11"x 9".

Besold, Bobbe. Year of the Earth Dog. 2018. Gouache and pencil, 11"x 9".

Besold, Bobbe. Year of the Red Fire Rooster. 2017. Gouache and pencil, 11"x 9".

Besold, Bobbe. Year of the Black Water Snake. 2013. Gouache and pencil, 11"x 9".

Besold, Bobbe. Year of the Metal Rat. 2020. Gouache and pencil, 11"x 9".

Besold, Bobbe. Year of the Water Tiger. 2022. Gouache and pencil on coarse watercolour paper, 11” x 9”.

Besold, Bobbe. Year of the Black Water Rabbit. 2023. Gouache and pencil, 11"x 9".

Besold, Bobbe. Green Wood Dragon. 2024. Gouache, watercolour and pencil on watercolour paper, 11"x 9".

The first painting . . .

Besold, Bobbe. Year of the Metal Tiger (1). 2010. Gouache, watercolour and pencil on watercolour paper, 11” x 9”.

Bobbe Besold fills out

The Wild Culture Artist’s Questionnaire

1  What is your first memory and what does it tell you about your life at that time and your life at this time?

Looking through the wooden bars of my crib. Knowing there was more out there than was in here. Climbing out.

2  Can you name a handful of artists in your field, or other fields, who have influenced you — who come to mind immediately?

Kathe Kollwitz, Federico Fellini, Julie Taymor, Patti Smith, Aretha Franklin, Jane Campion, Ursula LeGuin.

3  Where did you grow up, and did that place and your experience of it help form your sense about place and the environment in general?

I grew up on the North Fork of Long Island, 18 miles from New York City: swimming in the sea, being on the sea, sledding, skating and skiing in the winter, foraging for berries and fishing with my parents and siblings with a steady diet of Broadway Theatre, performance, music, movies and the Museums in the city . . . this is a weaving of what I love, and the work I do.

4  If you were going away on a very long journey and you could only take four books — one art book, one fiction or poetry, one non-fiction, one theory or criticism  — what would they be?

Art book: Rehearsing With the Gods: Photographs and Essays on the Bread & Puppet Theater. Fiction: Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr. Non-fiction: The Sibley Guide to Birds, by David Allen Sibley. One Long River of Song, by Brian Doyle (a collection of essays, not criticism).

5  What was your most keen interest between the ages of 10 and 12?

Drawing.

6  At what point did you discover your ability with your art?

When I was 3 years old.

7  Do you have an ‘engine’ that drives your artistic practice, and if so, can you comment on it?

Art, Water, Trees, Plants, Animals, Birds and Sky feed me. When I ignore this I suffer.

8  If you were to meet a person who seriously wants to do work in your field — someone who admires and resonates with the type of work you do, and they clearly have real talent — and they asked you for some general advice, what would that be?

To remember that art has no limits and as such serve your community with possibility, inspiration, humour and love.

9  Do you have a current question or preoccupation that you could share with us?

The role of art and humanity in working for Water, Air, Earth, finding possibility in the Climate Crisis and Extinction.

10  What does the term ‘wild culture’ mean to you?

Wild Culture means anything is possible within the realm of art and ideas.

11  If you would like to ask yourself a final question, what would it be?

What does it mean to truly be seen, and why is that such a rare experience for human beings?

BOBBE BESOLD is a painter and interdisciplinary artist working in community for possibility. In the 1970s she lived in Toronto at this time where she was an active member of the artist-run centre performance art community. Her work has been exhibited in many solo and group shows and public art in Canada and the US. Her most recent works are FLOW, a processional performance with over 40+ local artists, co-produced earlier this year with Jo Christian, and The Wall of Love, a public art project. Bobbe lives in Sante Fe, New Mexico. www.bobbebesold.com