Paniolo 1 (Blue Paniolo)
LISA TANG LIU: VISUAL ART PORTFOLIO
COWBOYS & RODEOS
As a naturalized American citizen who immigrated to the United States at age nine, I have spent most of my life pondering what it means to be American.
The cowboy has long been a symbol of the American spirit, and I find myself drawn to it. To me, it stands for freedom, self-reliance, adventure, new frontiers, and optimism–values that I love about being American.
In my ongoing COWBOYS & RODEOS series, I attempt to capture these feelings as I visit ranches and rodeos in different states.
Paniolo 1 was selected for the show BLUE at the Cambridge Art Association. A paniolo is a Hawaiian cowboy. The word evolved from vaquero, the Spanish word for cowboy, when a group of Mexican cowboys were hired by John Parker to help the island of Hawaii herd their feral cattle. The rodeo on Parker Ranch, where this image was taken, was especially meaningful to me because of the multiracial composition of its participants. The participating cowboys and cowgirls’ last names could be Smith, Matsumoto, Wong, DeCasa, or Kainoa.
The cowboy has long been a symbol of the American spirit, and I find myself drawn to it. To me, it stands for freedom, self-reliance, adventure, new frontiers, and optimism–values that I love about being American.
In my ongoing COWBOYS & RODEOS series, I attempt to capture these feelings as I visit ranches and rodeos in different states.
Paniolo 1 was selected for the show BLUE at the Cambridge Art Association. A paniolo is a Hawaiian cowboy. The word evolved from vaquero, the Spanish word for cowboy, when a group of Mexican cowboys were hired by John Parker to help the island of Hawaii herd their feral cattle. The rodeo on Parker Ranch, where this image was taken, was especially meaningful to me because of the multiracial composition of its participants. The participating cowboys and cowgirls’ last names could be Smith, Matsumoto, Wong, DeCasa, or Kainoa.