Bison-tennial Man: A John Lurie Print

The first piece of art I purchased, purely for art's sake, was a facsimile (edition of 45) of John Lurie's magnificently stroked Bison. A 21 x 30 inkjet print on archival rag paper, it's signed by John, too.

As a long-time fan of the onscreen Lurie and his musical output with the Lounge Lizards and, of course, "The Legendary Marvin Pontiac," I'd been eyeing one of his paintings for a while.

Really, ever since I picked up his book Learn to Draw from Cologne's Buchhandlung Walther König:

"In the objects about us that we think of as beautiful, it isn't always their color that attracts our attention; it is what they look like," Lurie writes in the intro.

That bit of idiosyncratic wisdom stayed with me, as I squirreled away the necessary $500 to purchase Bison. With that magic number reached, I transferred from Wells Fargo to PayPal, clicked on over to JohnLuriePrints.com, added Bison to my cart, and it was all mine.

Finally!

I still feel like I have the prettiest even-toed ungulate in the West hanging right there in my study.

(As it turns out, you really can put lipstick on a bison...well, at least John Lurie can.)

Moreover, when I saw "Bison" hanging in Lurie's aptly titled "Strange and Beautiful" exhibit at the downstairs bar of (le) Poisson Rouge last year, it only confirmed I'd made the perfect choice.

Now, I just have to decide which Lurie print will go best in the living room.

Right now, I'm thinking Elephant.