Who?

I'll bet you thought this BLOG was about you, about you....."

Well, Luis Jimenez, somewhere up there in the ether, this time you hit the NOGGIN on THE STEEL SPIKE.

In just the right light, were I to glimpse this monster FINALLY erected at Denver International Airport?

 

 

 Heard in a foxhole....? 

"Move over! I need some prayin' room here. Is that fire coming out the beast's mouth?"

Luis Jimenez was commissioned to fashion this giant MUSTANG as the signature piece of art at DIA. When? Way back in the early 90's. In my personal priority chart it was, and is, the most poignant visual reminder of how difficult it is to complete a public works project.

A committee selected Luiz, and he was paid a ton of money to create and erect the MUSTANG. The committee was so in awe of his work and reputation? They gave him at least half the money up front. That's reasonable I think, don't you?

So of course the next clause would read, "to be completed by "BLAH, blah, blah, BLAH blah, blah", right?

"Why tie him to a date? He is reputable and a whole bunch of people say his work is fantastic."

There were many airport employees outside the committee that remain unimpressed. They saw the renderings that came with the proposal. They were and are shocked  Luiz was inspired by a vision of a skinny BLUE mustang with bright red NEON eyes ready to pry into your soul."

I currently have at least four students ( Komal Sulehria, Michele Kreps, Kiki Rhea and Gabrielle Bryant) working at the airport. One of them says the Mustang's eyes are clearly the "EYES OF THE DEVIL."

Well let'sgive the DEVIL his due. In the general coverage of the controversial work,  and it's delays in being erected, Luiz Jimenez was being protrayed as some person akin to THE DEVIL.

Truth? Some of the issues that arose? Luiz went blind in one eye while working on the MUSTANG. He kept working, but not as fast. Another committee decided the sculpture should go inside the terminal instead of sitting on a hill along side a road approaching the terminal. The FAA complained the EYEs would interfere with air traffic control.

 

(Can you imagine all the wet pants and diapers when babies and toddlers got up close and personal with this beast?)

To hear of the delay in isolation many felt Jimenz was just sittin' down in his Hondo, New Mexico studio "doggin' it." I know that was my first thought. So photographer Jim Weis and I decided to go to Hondo and confront the man.

What we found was a man hard at work on many commissioned projects. But?

We walked into an environment ( an old elementary school he purchased and turned into a combination home and studio) devoted to the study of a MUSTANG.  Inside the home? A real live air snortin' Mustang tied to a rail in what used to be the cafeteria. On the walls around the live model, hundreds of pictures of Mustangs, and right in front of our eyes, a nearly completed  12 foot high steel and clay representation of the final project.

We drove up the road a bit to see the steel frame structure ready to go for the MUSTANG we now see at DIA. That was still in the mid 90's.

Still, the airport paid good money for a piece of art work it hadn't received. Now see if you can guess the next development.

DID LAWYERS GET INVOLVED? 

I often decry the over use of the word Tragedy. How can the "DEATH OF GHANDI" and the "loss of a cat" be analogous?

But I think the end of this story matches classical and modern definitions of tragedy. And sorry, but Peggy says if this posting is any longer, you won't read it.  So come back tomorrow and I promise to WRAP IT UP.