Josh Osher, Wootton ’91, lives in a teepee near the buffalo at Yellowstone National Park.
He attended the University of Maryland after Wootton. “After Maryland, I traveled west and went to Colorado,” Osher said. He began doing environmental work in there. “I was actually living in my own teepee in Colorado, as well.”
In the spring of 2002, Osher went to Yellowstone and saw wild buffalo for the first time. “The experience of being with the buffalo really touched me. When you’re out there in the wild with them, they’re just incredible creatures,” he said. “I see the buffalo as a symbol of co-existing with nature.”
In the two months that he was there, Osher said he saw more than 150 buffalo captured and killed. Federal and state governments -- Yellowstone is mostly in Wyoming, with parts in Montana – routinely trap or kill buffalo which wander off the park’s grounds.
Some buffalo carry a disease called brucilosis. The disease causes animals to spontaneously abort their first calf, and the cattle ranchers in the area are frightened that the disease might spread to their herds.
Osher says that there are other, economic reasons which are a driving force. “If a state loses its ‘brucilosis-free’ status, it has to do additional testing before shipping across state lines,” he said.
After what he saw, Osher decided to join a group known as the Buffalo Fields Campaign. The campaign watches and documents the buffalo killings. “The experience of being there lead me to dedicate myself to the buffalo,” he said.
The group is also politically active. They have gotten more than 80 congressmen, including U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-8), to co-sponsor a bill which would institute a three-year moratorium on killing buffalo. The bill also provides the buffalo with a habitat outside the park for winter grazing, and implements several other protections for the animals.
Then, last winter, Osher’s mother, Marian, came to visit and found herself taken in by the gentle nature of the one-ton animals. “We spent quite a bit of time just hanging out with the buffalo,” Marian Osher said. “I just became really enchanted with the buffalo.”
She began going out with other volunteers and tracking the herd. “It was great having her there,” Josh Osher said. “She, herself became dedicated to protecting the buffalo.”
Marian Osher returned to Potomac with the buffalo on her mind and an art show to put together. She is a printmaker, and has a solo exhibit at the Washington Printmakers Gallery in DuPont Circle.
“I always dedicate my show to someone,” Marian Osher said. She is dedicating this show to the Buffalo Fields Campaign.
“The buffalo can’t speak for themselves,” Marian Osher said. “They need to have someone to speak for them.”
The buffalo are not the only inspiration she has for this show. Osher’s work, some of which features buffalo imagery, was also inspired by kaleidoscopes. “Kaleidoscope images are always different, they always change,” Marian Osher said.
While working, she likes to listen to music, and let the sounds direct her choice of color and form. “I did not preconceive the colors,” Marian Osher said.
“Her work is very powerful, and it’s very distinct,” said Jen Watson, director of the Washington Printmakers Gallery. “It has a stained-glass feel.”
Through her art, Marian Osher says she feels more spiritual. “It is the idea of the connection we have with each other and with nature,” Marian Osher said.
And her connection with nature is also being reaffirmed through her time spent in Yellowstone with her son. “I’m grateful to my son for educating me about this issue,” Marin Osher said. “We do need to know about these things.”