Winning the Iron Shirt

25'3" high x 8' x 5'
Installed in Loveland, Colorado

Many times over, shirts of Spanish mail armor found their way out of Mexico and into the hands of North American Indians. It is reported that, either as spoils of war or in trade, one got as far north as the Blackfoot on the Canadian border. Grinnell tells of a Pawnee (Carries His Shield In Front) taking an Iron Shirt from the "invincible" (Resting On A Cloud) Southern Cheyenne.

As the story arranged itself in my mind, only the final victory would tell the tale as I envisioned it. For me, this piece takes me to the brink of poor taste. There is a dead man here. I don't like to show blood. If the viewer chooses to imagine blood, he can. But, I feel death must be presented, in this piece, in the form of repose. This is a triumphant theme. The posture and the yell to his victorious comrades combine to show the exuberance, the exhilaration of victory.