Buffalo Painting Auction, Road Trips, and a Long Planned Visit to Woolaroc

Jennifer Jones
May 12
3 min read

There are ideas that show up politely, like they’ve knocked first.

And then there are ideas that don’t seem to care whether you are ready for them.

This one had hooves.

Buffa Lo and Behold - The painting which demanded to be painted.

This year as I thought about auction items for the Oklahoma Land Title Association’s annual convention auction, my thoughts kept circling around many ideas. I usually start practical. Something themed. Something safe. Something that will not turn into a week of overthinking. This year I even considered power tools, which I will not explain further but stand by as part of the process.

But underneath all of that, something else had already taken root.

I have wanted to go to Woolaroc Museum & Wildlife Preserve for a long time. Not in a passing way, but in the steady way certain places stay on a mental list and do not leave.

So, when the auction planning started, Bartlesville kept showing up in the ideas.

Not intentionally. Just there.

Eventually three auction items formed themselves. Not as a collection. Just three things existing at the same time.

1. A Weekend Trip to Bartlesville, Oklahoma Live Auction Item A night at a bed and breakfast. Dinner somewhere that is not routine. And Woolaroc, the part I have been circling for years without realizing I was circling it. I have wanted to go to Woolaroc Museum & Wildlife Preserve for a long time. A trip that does not need to be complicated to feel significant.

2. A Road Trip Package Silent Auction Item A gas card and a Visa card built for movement. For leaving without overthinking the leaving. Along with a few snacks tucked in for the in between stretches because the in between is always longer than expected. It is less a plan and more a permission slip.

3. A Buffalo Painting Silent Auction Piece And then there is the one that did not behave like the others.

It did not evolve or coordinate or attach itself to anything else. It arrived fully formed and refused to become something smaller or more convenient. A buffalo painting auction piece that would not stay in the background.

I did not want to paint it, but somehow it just would not go away. Not in a loud way. Just persistent. The kind of idea that sits there until everything else starts to feel less convincing.

At some point I stopped negotiating with it.

So, I started painting.

The strange part is that it never became part of a larger plan. It stayed entirely itself. The kind of thing that does not try to fit in, no matter how you position it.

I have titled it Buffa Lo and Behold.

The eyes do most of the work. Not loudly. Just steadily. You notice them and then realize you are still looking longer than you meant to. It does not ask for attention. It simply holds it.

That has been the most interesting part of all of this. Not the items themselves, but the way each one insists on being exactly what it is.

One is a place I have been meaning to visit for years and finally stopped postponing. One is movement without obligation to a destination. And one is a buffalo painting auction piece that refused to be anything less than itself.

The auction arrived, and I was set to bid. As I was helping with some OLTA business, I told Matt to keep an eye out on the Woolaroc package because I wanted to bid on it. (I really, really want to go.) He, of course, disregarded me. The package came and went before I was ready.