For twenty years, Markus Pierson has painted and sculpted a series of subjects he playfully calls “dogs in suits.” His coyote series has garnered both critical acclaim and vast popularity across the world throughout its two-decade evolution. Pierson, who began painting after a brush with death in the mid-eighties, was inspired by the Joni Mitchell song “Coyote,” which led him to adopt these “dogs in suits” as spokespeople for the ebb and flow of the human condition.

He says of the Coyote:

I AM COYOTE. I AM BLACK, I AM WHITE, I AM TAN, I AM RED, I AM JEWISH, I AM GENTILE. I AM FROM EVERY PLACE I HAVE EVER BEEN OR SEEN OR HEARD OF OR LIGHTLY GRAZED MY HAND ACROSS AS I CARESSED AN ATLAS. I AM YOUR TWIN. I AM GAY, I AM STRAIGHT. I HAVE FELT AND KNOWN DEEPLY EVERY TEMPTATION, BOTH DARK AND LIGHT, AND I HAVE CONCLUDED WHAT YOU HAVE AND THEN, LIKE YOU, WONDERED THE WISDOM OF THAT CONCLUSION. I AM FRIGHTENED, I AM GIDDY, I AM MYSTIFIED, I AM ENLIGHTENED, I AM ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN I AM NOT WHAT OTHERS THINK I AM. I MUCH PREFER HAVING SOMEONE DISAPPOINT ME OVER DISAPPOINTING SOMEONE. I WOULD RATHER HAVE MY HEART BROKEN THAN TO BREAK SOMEONE’S HEART. I’D RATHER HAVE WILL THAN LUCK. I HATE CAPITULATION. I LEARN EVERYTHING THE HARD WAY. I HAVE BEEN UNBELIEVABLY STUPID. I’M HAUNTED. I’M OPTIMISTIC, AND I’M OPEN-MINDED TO A FAULT. I AM RIDDLED WITH FAULTS, BUT I DO TRY. I AM REALIZED BY ONE PARTICULAR PERSON, BUT I AM ACTUALIZED BY EVERY PERSON I’VE EVER MET. YOU HAVE MADE ME, YOU ARE MY REASON FOR BEING, AND I THANK YOU.

After reading this philosophical reflection on what it means to be a coyote in a Pierson work, it becomes impossible not to relate to the transcendent qualities of his fanciful “dogs.”

See Marcus Pierson's "Don Coyote" Sculpture here

See Marcus Pierson's "Gaucho" Sculpture here