The mules of New Orleans

Here is an excerpt from an article that I recently wrote for The Brayer, the bi-monthly publication of the American Donkey and Mule Society:

"I went to New Orleans’ French Quarter for the beautiful architecture, or maybe for the food, or the history, or the music, but certainly not for the mules. The mules, in fact, came as a bit of a surprise, yet there I sat at the famous Café du Monde enjoying my chicory coffee and beignets and staring at about a dozen gorgeous carriages lined up and waiting across the street. Not a single one was pulled by a horse…not even one.

Any footsore tourist who wants to be shown the sights can pay their $12 for a short tour or a rather steeper price of $60 to be taken around town for about two hours.

New Orleans being what it is, even such a handsome crew (or should I say krewe?) apparently needed a little extra decoration and this time it

came in the form of flowers. Most of the mules’ bridles were… ahem…jazzed up with anything from a single silk flower to an entire bouquet. It’s a charming touch and really reflects the character of the entire French Quarter to my mind, a place where everything is decorated and there is live music absolutely everyplace you go."

This brings us to one of my current works in progress. I've recently developed a passion for bas relief sculpture (called medallions by model horse enthusiasts, although in the art world the word "medallion" refers to something a little more specific). Being not entirely a two dimensional work, nor exactly a three dimensional sculpture, it presents some very unique challenges. My second foray into the art form is the recently completed Son of the Sands, an Arabian stallion against a background inspired by Islamic geometric patterns. (My first bas relief has been lost and shall hopefully remain that way forever. I think I have a photo of it somewhere. You will never see it. If I find the photo, I'm destroying it. Not every piece can be a winner, you know.) Number three is going to be a flower bedecked carriage mule roughly adapted from the bay mule above. I'm working in polymer clay on this one. This is what the mule looked like shortly before the first baking. I think I tweaked a few minor elements between taking this picture and the actual baking after talking to Leah, my authority on all things mule. So, now I have a naked mule with all the tack and flora to be added in the next week if there's time in between the custom order backlog that I'm currently plowing through and finally starting the next sculpture, Bridon Belfrey (more on him later!).