Art that Honors the Hunt

I’ve been a hunter almost as long as I can remember. I hunted squirrel at the age of 9, deer at age 14, and grouse, pheasants, and quail at age 15. I got into hunting turkey and ducks while in college.

I enjoy surprising people, even friends I’ve known for years, with these amazing details. You can only imagine the looks I received from the ladies in my Bible Study when I told them all about it. For them, it is surprising that I am a hunter. Maybe it’s because I have been an attorney in a prominent “Big Law” law firm, because I am a Christian, or because I am ladylike and very feminine. To me, these labels are not incompatible.

You see, I had an amazing dad who allowed my mom’s interest in hunting to flourish on her own schedule without any pressure. Without her interest, I probably would’ve never gotten into it. She said that she didn’t want to miss out on any of the fun and neither did I. So, I suppose the only feminist in my family was my dad!

Hunting is in our blood and probably in yours, too. Interestingly, the founding father of the Kisers, the man who built our family’s stone homestead in Bourbon County, Kentucky in 1785, is included in The Great Hunters of Kentucky, a book found in the archives of the Kentucky Historical Society.

Unsurprisingly, my first taste of success as an artist intertwined both passions: my passion for making pictures and exploring the Great Outdoors. At the age of 16, I won Kentucky’s first Junior Duck Stamp art contest, which is a contest run by Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife to promote conservation through the arts. Over the years, I’ve donated a dozen originals and prints to various organizations to promote habitat conservation and to provide for safe, youth shooting sporting activities.

As an American visual artist, I’m uniquely positioned to recreate the truth of the excitement, beauty, and connection with the land, the wildlife, and our bird dogs that we witness only in fleeting moments during our hunts. The compositions and colors of my dramatic hunt scenes could not possibly be caught by a hunter’s camera lens during the hunt itself. However, with careful planning and several reference photographs taken during the quieter moments of my hunts, I am able to lovingly reconstruct the scenes in my studio after the hunt.

I think it’s high time that more women embrace our noble traditions and that more men feel comfortable inviting their wives, daughters, and granddaughters along for the hunt. You may just create a family tradition. As my dad always said: a family that hunts together, stays together.

If you are a hunter or if you merely love a hunter, my gift to you is the opportunity to collect original art of authentic American hunting scenes from the loving perspective of a female hunter.