Print depicts the roots of rodeo

This year's Reno Rodeo limited-edition print is a step back in time, and that's exactly the way Reno Rodeo President Ray Callahan and artist Cathy Trachok wanted it. "My theme this year has been a saddle-broncs-and-sagebrush kind of thing, kind of going back to the roots," said Callahan, a rancher and fourth-generation Nevadan. The roots of rodeo sprang from the ranches of the Old West, when cowboys from the various ranches would enliven roundups and cattle drives with friendly competitions. Trachok, a Reno native and lifelong artist, has long had a love for Nevada's mountain and desert landscapes. She has also had a longtime desire to be the artist for the Reno Rodeo print. He showed Trachok a black-and-white photograph of a saddled bronc kicking up its heels, stirring up a cloud of dust, and tugging against a cowboy trying to gain control. He asked her if she could use the image as a starting point. And so she did, with great delight. "It was a black-white-photograph, so I got to play around with the colors that I wanted to do," she said. The end result shows Nevada mountains and sagebrush and a scene that has probably played out thousands of times on Nevada's range during the past 150 years...more