Coyote Forgetting

Bartow referenced his work as healing and transformational. Coyote Forgetting marks Bartow's personal escape from substance abuse. "The mythological image of Coyote stands in a threshhold of muted turquoise color, emerging from a misty dream of the past. The anthropomorphic form is saturated with color--orange, red, yellow, pink and purple--in celebration of the victory of survival. The artist's quick, loose strokes of color darts out from around the edge of the image. This imagery focuses on the "head and heart", important elements to the spirituality of his figures. Coyote has remembered, now he can forget."

(1946-2016, Wiyot and Yurok tribal affiliation) Bartow was a painter, a sculptor and a printmaker. A graduate of Western Oregon University, Bartow earned a degree in secondary art education. This artist also is a musician and a singer with his own folk-rock band, playing the guitar and bongos.

Honored with a traveling mid-career retrospective and monograph My Eye, it was organized by the Hallie Ford Museum 2003 - 2004. Bartow was given a solo exhibit at the National Museum of the American Indian in 2003. The Eijteljorg Museum awarded him a Fellowship for Native American Fine Art in 2001.

Bartow's work is included in the permanent collections of the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Arts in Indianapolis, Indian; the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC; the Hallie Ford Museum of Art in Salem, Oregon; the Heard Museum in Phoenix, AZ; the De Saisset Museum and the Portland Art Museum.

His paintings are characterized as expressionistic, often dealing with human and animal forms.