This piece reinterprets Caravaggio's John the Baptist in the Wilderness through a Native American lens, translating the original's raw, unidealized humanity into the landscape and life of those in that landscape. The bison hyde replaces Caravaggio's animal skin, the long reed cross becomes a spear while the Red blanket with Native American patterns fulfills that cross motif. — Underfoot, Sacajawea bitterroot and sagebrush replace the Mediterranean flora of the original, and the fig trees give way to aspens, grounding the composition fully in North American terrain. True to Caravaggio's intent, the figure isn't idealized or mythologized — he's rendered as flesh and weight, a believable man caught in a single unguarded moment.
