Trail of Painted Ponies 6009478LE Christmas Delivery Limited Edition Figurine 7″

The coats of buffalo are traditionally brown, so when a white buffalo is born, according to Plains Indians tribal lore, it is a sacred sign of good times to come. The horse is another animal highly revered by Native Americans, so this artist felt a blending of the two would make a striking design that honored both the buffalo and the horse. Adorned with accompanying symbols - circles around the eyes and nose to see and smell danger, lightning bolts for speed and nimble-footedness and a bear paw for strength - Tatanka Ska (Lakota for white buffalo) represents an icon of hope and positive transformation.

In Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, the Ghost of Christmas Present is described as a jovial giant clad in a green mantle trimmed with white fur, with an icicle studded wreath of holly upon his head. He carries a torch shaped like horn, from which the Spirit spreads his blessing of hope and good cheer. He invisibly leads Ebeneezer Scrooge through the cobble-stone streets of London, blessing every celebration of the day, no matter how humble. The Trail of Painted Ponies celebrates this Christmas classic with its equestrian version titled Spirit of Christmas Present.

There have been a number of powerful tributes to the tragedy of 9/11, among them the commemorative public art installation known as the Tribute of Lights: a pair of giant beams of light, installed at Ground Zero, that mimicked the position and shape of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center as they illuminated the night sky over Manhattan. With this image in mind, I conceived of a Painted Pony that utilized the same form that The Trail created for a previous tribute to 9/11 titled "Unconquered," which posed a white stallion triumphantly atop rubble intended to represent the collapsed Twin Towers, with an American flag behind it. But instead of a white horse, this piece would feature a faceted blue horse. Blue because the lights in the Tribute of Lights were blue. Faceted to represent the 43,600 windows that were part of the Twin Towers, as well as the venues on the top floors of the North Tower which were called Windows on the World. The title - "Wild Blue" - borrows the name of a restaurant in the North Tower that was destroyed.