Description
The title for the 2022 Blaze Tribute print, comes from a contribution by a Facebook follower. Here is her reason:
“WILD LOVE ABLAZE…for me this name has two meanings, one that when his eyes were ablaze with strong emotion and excitement. The other biblical meaning fire in which rebirth as him in heaven with his harem and felling light, love and beautiful range to roam with his off spring. A Wild Love that will forever burn in my heart when I think of the one and only BLAZE.” ~Nancy
Here is the backstory to this image!
“…you have a terrible beauty that scares me – a fierce defiance that won’t be subdued – not that I want to tame you – I don’t…” ~John Geddes
Early on this Thursday morning I found the pitter-patter stallion, Blaze, high on a ridge a couple of miles into the exterior of the park. Just north of Fuzzy Top where we had documented Pinnacles birth two weeks before. Blaze was a tiny dot on the horizon line. His band was spread over a large area. Some of them on the ridge with him, six of them in a valley east of him.
Hoping to see a new foal, I moved up to the easier six to get to, the ones to the east. They were Domino and her new filly, Pinnacles, and yearling colt, Urban, Papoose and her yearling, Sebastian, and Diamond. Gosh darn, Papoose, still wasn’t ready to present the world with fresh life, but she was definitely reaching the boiling point! Blaze was keeping a watchful eye from his high vantage spot.
Suddenly, the mares spooked and moved off. Well Blaze didn’t like that and I watched him roar off the ridge line and disappear into the gully below. Ahhhh, I thought he is going to come right by me on the run, I better have my camera ready! Standing there, my hands shaking, I waited and waited and waited. What the heck.
The mares are looking up high and I think, “That stinker, he has gone to the ridge top above and he is going to sneak in from behind me.” So I worked my way up the valley to intercept him there. But no….he still isn’t coming.
Finally, slinking up from the bottom of the valley is Mr. Magnificent himself.
Like a giant panther he works his way toward the mares and quietly drives them up the valley onto a small butte above. As he continues to push them, the aberration that spooked the mares appeared, Mr. Huge Bison! Now I am trapped on the side of the butte with a very large bull glaring down at me and nowhere to go.
Watching Blaze push his mares to the top of another ridge and stand there looking back at me, I thought, “Blaze is laughing at me, I just know it.” With a shake of his gorgeous, Fabio hair he takes his mares out of sight! The buff snorts one last time and lumbers his huge body into the morning sun and I take a deep breath and say a silent thank you for all that I just witnessed.
Your fine art print of Blaze, will be printed using a ten color printer with archival inks and produced on a German paper, Hahnemuhle 308, a 100% cotton photo rag fine art paper with a deckled edge. This open edition, 19×13, fine art print will be nothing like what you see on your monitor, your print will be richer, filled with more detail, color, and contain impressive pictorial depth. Each print will be signed with a graphite pencil and when framed using archival methods will be an investment into the history of a powerful wild mustang to pass down to future generations.
We will donate a percentage of the sale of this print to Walk By Faith Therapeutic Riding, a non-profit located in northern Minnesota, who use wild horses adopted from Theodore Roosevelt National Park in their programs, providing hope to the lives of children and veterans.
The remainder of the funds will go to Star of the North Mustangs. A pending Minnesota non-profit that will be dedicated to telling the mustangs story through art, through personal encounters with mustangs, and using the mustang to connect humans to the fragile and diminishing wild landscape.
