Gendron Jensen (American/New Mexico, 1939-2019) , "Nenda Watood", 1983, graphite on paper, pencil-monogrammed and dated lower right, titled lower left, 13 1/16 in. x 23 1/8 in., framed. Note: Largely self-taught, Gendron Jensen took only two formal art classes, both during two years at the University of Minnesota Duluth. He also spent five years at a Benedictine monastery in Wisconsin and seventeen years on a former mink farm south of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. He began to undertake his “forest eccentric” wanderings during his years in Minnesota, collecting bones and then meticulously drawing them from what he called “the sacred angle,” which helped him to connect to the animal’s soul. For more than half a century, Jensen focused almost exclusively on drawing wild animal bones found while hiking the north woods of Minnesota or the extensive lands near his adopted home outside of Taos, New Mexico. Jensen's renderings of the intricate infrastructures of wildlife, such as the works offered here, are delicate, precise and mysterious. His work often baffles the viewer by enlarging the subject to create sculptural forms that are at once detailed and abstract - evoking a deep and spiritual connection to nature. He was quoted as saying: "There is a majesty inherent in bones, a humbling geography that summons me to map its glories…there is a vital resonance in every bone." Ref.: Bolz, Diane M. "The Beauty of Bare Bone." Smithsonian Magazine. Feb. 1998. Eler, Alicia. "'Bone Man' Artist Gendron Jensen Dies at Age 79." Star Tribune. Aug. 10, 2019