This image shows a painting which is framed in a pigmented pastel purple panel that includes fragments of earth and rocks from the sites where the paintings were made. The painting is a composition that re-creates a National Forest sign as a brown target, where the picture plane becomes a mottled surface representing bullets holes and numerous abrasions and gouges. The background is composed of quick short brush strokes of browns, yellows, peach colors, grays, and blacks. The words, National and Forest, are superimposed diagonally, stacked as separate words, in large white cursive letters, over the battered background. The word Forest, spans the center of the painting where a large bullet hole has blasted through the letter R, like an entrance to a hidden cave. Emerging on a diagonal from the bottom left side of the painting is the partially obscured word Boundary – where the B, the O and the U are partially cut off in the picture plane.

National Forest Sign with Bullet Holes

ArtistJosephine Halvorson
Year2020
Dimensions24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cm)
MediumGouache and site material on panels
CreditCourtesy of the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York

The Santa Fe National Forest was created in 1915, and flanks Abiquiú to the east and west. During her residency Halvorson spent time hiking in the National Forest, where she encountered this sign, which had been used often for target practice. She captures every detail of the sign’s surface, restoring care to its presence.