To the nameless men who nameless rivers travel,
And in strange valleys greet strange deaths alone.
I was approached about doing an official poster for Brokeback Mountains 20th anniversary but in the end I didn’t hit the mark for them. But I was happy with it and will release my own prints of it in the near future. I think this is how I’d envision the movie actually ending.
From the start I had a complicated relationship with this movie. Even in 2005 I was tired of every queer person either dying of aids or violence on the television and movies. 20 years later I’m paintings the revised ending to this movie over and over again. Where the characters had the emotional intelligence to get out of these communities and find a life for themselves. Where they were honest enough men to face the fears and end their respective relationships with women they didn’t actually love. I understand the time and place of the movie was a different era but I’d love to see a cowboy movie with a happy ending some day.
variants on my country butches print // see the edition here
ID: four identical prints of two butches, one sitting and one leaning against a wooden fence. there is a tree behind them to the right and grass beneath them. the prints are made using different combinations of blue and brown ink, on white and cream paper.
A cowboy rode into town and stopped at a saloon for a drink. Unfortunately, the locals always had a habit of picking on strangers, which he was. When he finished his drink, he found his horse had been stolen.
He went back into the bar, handily flipped his gun into the air, caught it above his head without even looking and fired a shot into the ceiling.“Which one of you sidewinders stole my horse?!”, he yelled with surprising forcefulness.
No one answered.
“Alright, I’m gonna have another beer, and if my horse ain’t back outside by the time I finish, I’m gonna do what I dun in Texas! And I don’t like to have to do what I dun in Texas!”
Some of the locals shifted restlessly. The man, true to his word, had another beer, walked outside, and his horse has been returned to the post.
He saddled up and started to ride out of town. The bartender wandered out of the bar and asked, “Say partner, before you go… what happened in Texas?”
The cowboy turned back and said, “I had to walk home.”
We’re going to need each other more now than ever. I don’t know what else to do aside from continuing to focus on the I’ve and joy that inspires me.
Mark Seabrook - My Little Workhorse (The Cowboy II), 2025 - Oil on cradled wood panel