Tough by Nature Portraits of Cowgirls and Ranch Women of the American West

For the past nineteen years Lynda Lanker, a Eugene, Oregon, based artist, has been traveling throughout the western United States sketching, painting, interviewing and photographing iconic women.  As the American West, once dominated by ranches and agriculture, is tamed and transformed through settlement and corporate development, Lanker has persisted in her commitment to preserve the spirit and stories of ranch women and cowgirls. This exhibition and accompanying publication will present the portraits and stories of forty-nine women, from thirteen western states, who gain their sustenance and livelihood from the land.  Much like the Farm Security Administration’s photographs of the Great Depression will forever capture that era, Lanker’s images document a vanishing way of life that affirmed the role of women in the economy and ecology of the West.  Influenced by Andrew Wyeth and Thomas Hart Benton, Lanker uses a variety of media – pencil and charcoal, oil pastel, egg tempera, plate and stone lithography, engraving and drypoint – to capture the spirit of her women. The exhibition is accompanied by a major catalog, made possible by the Ford Family Foundation and private support, and is touring under the auspices of Landau Traveling Exhibitions.

Tough by Nature: Portraits of Cowgirls and Ranch Women of the American West is organized by the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University ofOregon, Eugene. The exhibition is made possible with major funding fromThe Ford Family Foundation; Cheryl Ramberg Ford and Allyn Ford; and theCoeta and Donald Barker Foundation Changing Exhibitions EndowmentFund. Additional support provided by Gregory Ahlijian; Rich Clarkson;JoMae and Joseph Gonyea; Janine and Joseph Gonyea III; Lisa and StevenKorth; Susie Yancey Papé; Hope Hughes Pressman; Christineand Chris A. Smith; Betty Soreng; Sharon Ungerleider; and JSMA members.