As an artist and amateur saddle bronc rider, Ringsby captures the 130 year-old rodeo tradition with a modern, digital eye. The video based Rodeo Series reveals the contemporary relevance and the timeslessness of rough stock action, yet the work is aestheticized and modernized to allow an appreciation of the poetic grace and beauty of the event.

It speaks to issues ranging from Western History and mythology to deeper layers of spirituality as man confronts nature, death and the myraid of human emotions.

The Rodeo Series 2000, which will open at The Cornell DeWitt Gallery in NYC on March 8 and at The Joseph Raj Gallery on March 31, is Ringsby's stunning follow-up to his black and white canvases. The Rodeo Series 2000 consists of 10 full color digital video stills printed on canvas 46 x 64 inches large and an additional video projection piece titled Ghost Riders II.

This latter production is a slow motion digital video of bull riders projected onto a double rawhide layered frame 6 x 8 feet in size.

While working on the Rodeo Series, it has remained important to Ringsby that the printed product retain the feel and look of video. He has not been interested in photo-realistic reproduction because that has already been done. Instead he has endeavoured to contemporize the classic Western image with modern techonology. Thus he has embraced the grain pixelation of the enlarged video image which serves to remind one that this work and image are not historical but from the present. The dots that comprise the video image also help abstract the work and exemplify the feeling of motion of both horse and rider.

Most fascinating of all is that Ringsby, in creating both Rodeo Series, appears to be tapping into an artistic zeitgeist.