Rabbit Knows Gun, a Crow artist, has been painting for over 30 years, utilizing various mediums, including acrylic, oil, oil pastels, water colors, pens, pencils, and with traditional paint on parfleches, hides, drums, buckskin and collages. He has worked in ledger art originals and other native items.
Rabbit graduated from Rocky Mountain College in 1997, and is a fluent Crow speaker-educator in Montana. Rabbit has painted over 440 original paintings and over 40 ledger art originals. He is a US Army Veteran and lives with his children, including grandchildren, and extended clan family in southeastern Montana.
Rabbit’s Crow name is (“Baa-Sa-Goshe”) which means “First to Lead.”
The paintings of Rabbit Knows Gun emphasize four concurrent themes: 1. Traditional Crow and Plains Indian Culture. 2. The natural/spiritual filled environment of all of the Creator’s blessings on the United States of America. 3. Christian spirituality as expressed in evangelical-charismatic religious perspectives. 4. American Patriotism as expressed by Native Americans. The belief in the “Kinship of Creation” is a dominant concept in Rabbit’s art work and Rabbit feels, “It is one of the dominant driving forces, that all life is sacred.”
Rabbit Knows Gun quotes Crow Chief Plenty Coups, “Education is powerful, with education you are the white man’s equal; without education, you are his victim.” Rabbit also advises, “Adapt to Biblical perspectives, and find new ways to keep Native Lifeways intact.”
For Rabbit’s artwork, contact him (406)598-3630 or rabbitknowsgun@hotmail.com.
