One of My Favorite Scuptures

This is one of my favorite sculptures that my uncle, Patrick Dennis Sieler did. He was living in Tucson at the time of it's creation. I did not get to see it until after his death. When I opened the box that it came in, I almost lost my breath. The power of this creation just about overwhelmed me. I sat on the floor with the wrappings and the box and just held this up in front of my eyes, turning around and around and around.

I immediately saw a story in this beautiful creation.

The above image is the Conquistador, maybe Cortez. This image is cruel and unforgiving. I try to put myself into the mindset of the invaders. They come to this land and the people are pagans. They are savages or perhaps little better than animals. The Conquistadores do not need to respect these people, just savage the people and the land. I cannot hold this image in my mind for long but I see it in the sculpture.

Here is the Aztec. He is proud of his place in the Universe. His people have done many wonderful things. Many cruel and inhuman things by our standards but we are not to look at the Aztec by modern day standards, only how they see the world. They have a very fine organized culture. People live and thrive. The Arts thrive. And here is where I have my Achilles heel. Anywhere the Arts thrive, I tend to feel that the people have more abilities. And this is where I cannot forgive the white man, who came to pillage. For the most part, they could not see the beauty of what they looked at, only the gleam of gold.

And here is the aftermath of the white man's doing. They brought Small Pox, death, famine. They took possession of a land and changed it forever. Was is it for better? That is not for me to say, but I do regret what was done the culture and the disrespect to a whole race and culture.
As you can see, this sculpture brings a lot of feelings to me and makes me think, and it challenges the mind. That is what true art can do the human mind.

This is bronze is 10" x 5", Patrick Dennis Sieler