Mustang Man

It's amazing what you can see when you Slow Down. It's not that simple anymore.

You have to get off the interstate. We do that a number of times on this trip.

In Utah? We down shift and spend an hour at an adoption pen for wild horses. But come on now!  Wild horses are just what you see in the movies, right? I mean, let's face it. These horses are penned up? They may not be trained, but they're not WILD!

So we are speeding along I-80 in Wyoming (everybody speeds on I-80 in Wyoming.). This time a little voice keeps telling me to get out of the fast lane.

I finally take some scary exit and head off onto a dirt road that leads to an oil exploration field. Now, I'm in search of an antelope that likes to pose for pictures.

But 90 percent of the time you get off on a dirt road people have been telling you to stay away from? You see more than you asked for. 

A rusted road sign dented by buckshot? It labels this BLM land. I'm sure I'm going to find that antelope. But before I do? Out here on the open range?

KABOOM! There in the sage brush is a feral horse, aka, MUSTANG. It's eyes are wild. It's  spirit is intact. It is in control of it's own fate. It is a true symbol of the West.

I'd like to take credit for that description? But I get these words from Luis Jimenez. Who is Luis Jimenez?

Luis Jimenez died this week in a pool of irony. I won't need to do much writing to convince you of that. But I need to add some character to this man of irony. I want you to appreciate him. You don't have to like him. Just appreciate him.

Luis Jimenez is an artist. I can't call him friend, although I'd like to. ( I'd have a beer with Luis) We do spend one day together. We are both working. I am reporting, and he is sculpting.

He is working on a model of a 32 foot high sculpture he's been commissioned to erect outside Denver International Airport.

I am here in his Hondo, New Mexico studio because Luis Jimenez is already five years behind on delivering a work of art he calls MUSTANG.

I'm here wondering what gives him the artistic gall to say, "hey, it'll be DONE when its DONE."  I mean he's already been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for the piece.

I also come bearing complaints of airport employees about his late arriving design.  "BLUE HORSE! BULGING RED NEON LIGHT EYES!"

I rather enjoy his response at this point.

"I don't know Paul. When I take it up there it may be Pink!"

Can't you picture this skinny unwashed rebel in his Greenwich Village flat saying, "it IS what it IS."

When I was first exposed to the Luis Jimenez controversy? I was shown some oil paintings and lithographs showing characters in bars and dance halls clearly under the influence of social rebellion.

Well this must be the Luis Jimenez we've come to see? I'll paraprhase his response to that part of his reputation.

" I'm (self portrait) in each one of the paintings. I'm the guy at the end of the bar looking in? But not participating. I painted them all in a six month period after a breakup. It was my 'BLUE PERIOD!"

Well, HERE is the artist I spent the day with. Luis Jimenez is most likely the only artist in Hondo, New Mexico. There are no opium dens or studios with cots in the back. Luis dresses in casual "around the house" outfits I'm sure he orders out of a catalogue.

"It's a long way to town."

Luis is a family man. His wife and kids live in an abandoned school. It is great for entertaining. The school cafeteria houses a large southwest style kitchen meant for family meals and occasional entertaining. (Photographer Jim Weis and I enjoy a cup of coffee at a thick distressed wood table.)

"But clearly this man can care less about this Mustang thing?"

That would be hard to document since one of the few additions Luis has made to the school-house? He's put in a coral for a pet MUSTANG. He's got a live model to work with at will.

Thanks to the school structure? A large gathering area, maybe a small gym, is now his work space.  It's big enough so that he can bring his model right into the studio.

While there is evidence of other large public art pieces Luis is working on or finished? The MUSTANG dominates the space. There are MUSTANG images all over the place.

"So what's the deal? Can't this guy finish a piece of work?"

His bigger than life commissioned public art sculptures are done, delivered and on display all over the country.

 He is an art professor. He lectures all over the World.

"Well then what's he got against Denver?"

"Nothing," he says.

He makes no excuses, but some issues surface while we're in Hondo.

"I told them I had a lot of other commitments at the time of the commission."

Following an accident,  he becomes blind in one eye. That clearly sets him back.

"Transportation of a work of this size and complexity is going to be tough to arrange. It'll have to be done at a specific time of year. I don't have that figured out yet."

"They still don't have a platform built outside the airport for me to set the Mustang on."

Later on there is a big issue over airport operatives wanting to put the sculpture inside the terminal.

With lawyers involved the whole story will never be told. But the final chapter is in:

A piece of the Mustang sculpture Luis and two employees are lifting into place? It falls on Luis. It severes an artery in his leg. Luis Jimenez bleeds to death.

There will be some bean counters trying to work this all out on paper. (They should. That's a lot of money.)

There will be some art critics trying to balance their sympathy with relief a blue horse won't be coming to town. That's okay, too.

 I just thought you might like to know a little more about Luis Jimenez before we put the story to bed.

By the way? Found the Antelope. [PICTURE #2]  Had some unexpected wealth come my way? I think I might have asked Luis to sculpt it for me. I'd buy the beer.