WindSong Gallery

Robert Blackcloud Eicher
Artist Memoir

Image: Blackcloud Portrait © Lisa Bracken 2005

From a very early age I embraced the wilderness as my Mother, my mentor, and my home.  She alone would sustain me, teach me the finer points of living with the land, and I knew even upon my absence as I went in search of broad and distant horizons, she would receive me with warmth and unfaded recognition.

Thus has followed my lifelong relationship of at times dwelling within and apart from my home in the wilds. Never however, have I wandered afar without the memory of all she has taught me, and how she has made me all that I am.

[the photo to the right and all photos in this bio were taken in Summerhawk valley]

At five years old, coup stick in hand, I embarked upon what I trusted would become my legendary solo journey into the surrounding Appalachian Mountains, intent on locating and capturing for study, a bear. Three days later, Forestry Service personnel along with state police, dragged me kicking and screaming back into the suffocating grip of society.

Driven from that moment onward with an unquenchable desire to discover what and why things worked as they did in the wilderness, I set a determined course for uncharted territory ~ the quest for which has not yet come to its conclusion.  Shortly after "the bear incident" I moved with my brother, sisters and mother back to her birth-place - The Osage Indian Reservation of Northern Oklahoma. 

On my many excursions as a young boy, I very quickly learned first hand that it was not wise to sleep in poison ivy, eat green fruit and poke a finger into a snake's eye.

I, and my relatively forgiving mentor, continued  to hone my hunting and forging skills, so by the time I reached nine years, I had discovered how to construct a solid rain-proof shelter and how to make a fire without matches. Daily fare, during such excursions, usually consisted of chipmunks, rabbits, an occasional frog or lizard and maybe a grub or two topped off by wild plant salads and, when in season, certain wild fruits.

By the age of eleven I was completely at home in the woods mentally mapping every stone, tree and shallow depression in the Osage Hills, and seizing every opportunity to escape through a window at school, slipping away for a few days - only to be relentlessly stalked by my sole adversary and only natural enemy to a young boy in the wilderness, the truant officer.  I had however, in the pursuit of wild game and absolute freedom, become rapidly adept at outrunning and outfoxing an overweight guy in his forties.

It wasn't that I disliked human beings, as my forays into the wilds had only replenished my reverence for all life.   It's just that I was undeniably much happier fishing or just lying on my back in the tall cool grass watching the thunderheads build over the western edge of the Osage.  Arithmetic, spelling lists and Mrs. Carbuncle simply lacked in mystical charm.

As a young man coming of age in the Osage, I spent many hours painting and drawing while circulating among and asking questions upon questions of the tribal elders. I suppose sensing my sincere interest, which was generally absent from many young tribal members  busy trying to assimilate into a more European influenced culture, compelled them to reciprocate my curiosity by teaching me everything from herbology to spiritual matters, to making clothes and other utensils from the natural elements.

I continued to gather knowledge and skills freely offered by the elders, weaving their methods into my daily experiences and listening to their stories of ancient nomadic life, absorbing their emotion and gaining the essence of what it meant to be a free roving people, until one day around twelve or thirteen I came down with an unquenchably severe case of wonder-lust.

As the cool of a fall morning settled into the valleys and great flocks of Canada geese made their way southward, I looked up watching them overhead and remember asking myself, "I wonder what it's like.... where they're going?"

It was then I informed my Father I was heading West.

So, with a few worthy possessions tossed into a tattered duffle and twenty-five cents borrowed from my uncle, I indeed headed West - into adventures most people can only dream of.

I discovered much about the arid parts of this country while walking across the Southwestern deserts, particularly when to travel and when not to. Damned near dying of dehydration, it was an exciting and fortifying prelude to the adventures waiting ahead!

I crossed and crossed again the Rocky Mountains and ventured into Canada, then on to Alaska, eventually returning to my parent's home just prior to my seventeenth birthday. Continually sketching subjects within my changing environment and all the while learning new and interesting methods of living with the land, I had a blast keeping myself alive and wild -- whether in the mountains, the desert, or in blue-ball cold.

As usual, soon after arriving back in Oklahoma, boredom took a steady hold which coincided with the US Marine Corp offering me an all-expense-paid vacation to the other side of the big blue Pacific!  I figured the spirits had truly smiled on me!

During my six year vacation with the Marines, I continued to hone my skills as an artist and survivor; and as long as we were in the bush, I thrived.  But when we returned to garrison duty, I was probably the most miserable critter ever to spit-shine a rough-out pair of boots. Understanding full well the virtues of discipline from living alone in the wild, I had a truly difficult time recognizing any good reason for spit-shining and other assorted minor annoyances such as the Marines are so fond of perfecting.

Leaving the Marines when my vacation money ran out, six years later, I returned to Oklahoma where I recaptured the vision of my innocent youth - and my sweetheart, Emma May, as well.

I turned and saw her once when I was about twelve - she was ten and looking out of a school bus window, watching me as I tramped toward the woods. I fell in love with her at that moment and have been in love with her ever since. She was working as a waitress now and fending off unwary new suitors with wild icy stares and irreverent acknowledgments.  I left her a ten dollar tip for a cup of coffee, pestered her unendingly, and weeks later, she eventually allowed me to capture her late one night at a stoplight in town. After a double shift, her judgment was obviously strained by fatigue.  I seized the moment. We drove until morning through Kansas and back home again spending perfect hours beneath a thundering rain storm atop a hill in her open-top 1956 convertible.  I had at last won her heart and also her hand, and she has graciously allowed me to recapture her many times since, accompanying me as my life long love and companion on my every adventure.

Knowing my academic education was pretty much non-existent and recalling my Father's (a physician) insistence to get that piece of collegiate paper which would somehow magically verify my existence, I begrudgingly embarked upon a new kind of adventure.

Much more than a need to fulfill some vague notion of intellectual achievement, I wanted to be able to give my new bride the world - and like the song says "spiders and snakes ain’t what it takes". I thus began developing a thirst for a different kind of knowledge which, like my quest for the knowledge and wisdom of wilderness, has never left me. I eventually studied  law, art, medicine and other sciences, rounding my exposure to and appreciation for academia. Within that realm, the greatest challenge was in narrowing my field of interest among so many worthy and engaging subjects!

Yet, whether it was wilderness survival skills, the arts, flying among the clouds or diving the ocean depths, I found adventure wherever I found myself. With the study of herbology and other complementary healing modalities, in the tradition of the elders who had first begun to teach me, I realized a true love for sharing knowledge and began to teach others.

Studying with accomplished artists the world over while teaching others, my love for all aspects of the arts continued to grow and mature as I worked to express my emotion through whatever media I adopted. 

In 1979 I and my beloved, growing family returned once again to the mountains - this time to the Colorado Rockies, where I have been happy to reside ever since. 

Throughout my life I've learned and shared with all who have sought to learn the art and science of wilderness skill; natural healing methodology; Native American traditions and all manner of artistic endeavors, from sculpture to lapidary to oil painting.

As I paint, my emotions flow freely onto canvas. I invite you to share the reflection of my reverence for our wild places and their inhabitants which I continuously strive to portray in my art, in my belief and in all that I am and do.

"The master came because it was time. He left because he followed the natural flow. So be content with the moment and be willing to follow the flow, then there will be no room for grief or joy - just the flow... and the fire burns on."
 

Blackcloud

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