Artist Bad Heart Bull’s Life Reflected in His Paintings
Residents may know Vincent, a man who talks with people and sometimes paints outside San Leandro’s Rite Aid on MacArthur Boulevard, just off Interstate 580.
What they may not know, however, is that Vincent Bad Heart Bull spent a lifetime painting about what he’s seen and experienced both as an individual and as a member of the Sioux Nation. His last name, Native in origin, refers not to a medical condition but to his ancestors’ troubled heart as they saw the world.
His paintings don’t hang in famous museums but in the homes of friends and community members.
“I try to show what my father saw, what we’re seeing in the world. People see different things,” he said. “People see things in them I don’t see.”
Vincent's grandfather, Amos Bad Heart Bull, was a famous Native American artist who chronicled the Sioux for decades in stories, drawings, and paintings. His grandfather contributed most of the art for the encyclopedic “A Photographic History of the Oglala Sioux,” published by the University of Nebraska Press. He even helped design Nebraska’s state capital.
His father painted as well, and even as a four-year-old, Vincent would get up before dawn to gather eggs for breakfast. After that, his dad would paint, sometimes quickly enough to sell the paintings that day to buy groceries for the family’s dinner. Vincent says he learned his craft from watching his father paint.
“We didn’t speak much, but I watched everything he did,” Bad Heart Bull said. “You can really learn something well by just watching someone work.”
If he can he plans to soon head to college in his sixties to finally learn how to paint in oils to supplement his work in acrylics and watercolors.
For years, Bad Heart Bull could not paint in oils because he was in a federal prison, where authorities consider them a fire hazard.
Vincent says he never seriously harmed anyone, but lesser offenses did add up to years “inside.”
While in prison, Vincent claims to have been beaten repeatedly by guards. He left prison mostly paralyzed on one side, with some damage to his bones, and is disabled for most work, despite being a certified welder. He is receiving medical care and is learning to use his right hand again for painting.
He has other problems creating his art, however. A garage fire in his rented house, caused by faulty wiring, damaged or destroyed many of his paintings. The rent is also going up, and so he will need a new place to live. His brother-in-law’s military pension and his own disability benefits only go so far, he said.
On his limited income, he also has trouble paying for art supplies so he can keep painting.
“Any help people can give so I can keep painting would be a big help,” Vincent Bad Heart Bull said.
Vincent Bad Heart Bull does not own a computer. Anyone interested in his art or supporting his painting can contact him via his local friend Bernie Duer at bernie.duer@gmail.com.