Spanish Mustangs in the Great American West
By John S. Hockensmith
Published by Fine Arts Editions Gallery & Press
146 E. Main, Georgetown, KY 40324
ISBN (9 digit): ISBN: 0-9061-9975
ISBN (13 digit): ISBN: 978-0-8061-9975-7
Price: $49.95
Page Count: 272
June 2009
[ words from the author ] [ info & accolades ] [ Q&A with the Author ] [ purchase ]
“The quill pen or the camera obscura is not what creates art; it is the artist who creates art. Hockensmith is a man of his time using the apparatus of his century, like a Walt Whitman with digital tools. This is a man who is a seasoned artist with a deep understanding of his subject matter. Hockensmith is without question a master equestrian artist.”
–Lloyd Kelly, president of the American Academy of Equine Art
“Sometimes books aspire; John S. Hockensmith's Spanish Mustangs in the Great American West both aspires and achieves. Hockensmith tells the romantic story of Spanish Mustangs capably and well. This book is a creative act born of great passion, and readers will nod their appreciation of that within moments of opening it.”
–Dan Flores, Ph.D., professor of history at the University of Montana and author of eight books, including The Natural West and Horizontal Yellow
“John S. Hockensmith has explored and corralled our Western American past with the dramatic and clear vision of a historian, the poetic power of an artist and the empathy of a horse lover. Mr. Hockensmith has beautifully told and illustrated America’s mustang legacy, taking the reader to the still extant colonial Spanish bloodlines, living in the wild, on semi-wild preservations and inside the Blackfeet Nation. Through his poetic language and gorgeous photographs, we can once again behold these magical creatures, the Spanish Mustangs.”
–Hope Ryden, nationally recognized naturalist and author of 23 books, including America’s Last Wild Horses and Wild Horses I Have Known
“The horse is sacred to the Native American tribes, and Hockensmith's mastery captures the beauty and soul of our buffalo horse, the Spanish Mustang. As an artist, I appreciate the energy and magnitude of this book and the brilliance of the photography.”
–David Dragonfly, Blackfeet-Assiniboine artist and curator of the Museum of the Plains Indian, Browning, Montana
“John S. Hockensmith's celebration of the Spanish Mustang takes us on a moving odyssey from the Old World to the mustang's role in the American West. The attraction between the horse and the human spirit is inescapably grounded in the horse's beauty, speed and mysterious elusiveness, qualities that through millennia have given rise to its perceived magical and supernatural powers. Through time immemorial, artists have been inspired to capture these esteemed characteristics worthy of veneration. Hockensmith's stunning photographs, resonating with the first painted renderings of the wild horse, join this legacy and are testimony to the enduring essence of the equine spirit.”
–Polly Schaafsma, research associate with the Museum of Indian Art and Culture, Santa Fé, New Mexico, renowned archaeologist and author of several books, including Indian Rock Art of the Southwest
[ words from the author ] [ info & accolades ] [ Q&A with the Author ] [ purchase ]