The cost of the expansion of the American West was frequently paid in sacrifice and lost lives. On November 29, 1864, 700 American soldiers killed 400 Cheyenne and Arapaho men, women, and children at their encampment in eastern Colorado. The unarmed inhabitants of the camp had no chance to escape.
I wanted to memorialize this event since learning of it decades ago and insisted that the piece to be a poignant reminder without sensationalism. I mulled this composition for years before finally finding my motivation in Michelangelo’s Pieta .
Dimensions are 24″ tall x 21″ x 21″, the number of the pieces in the edition will be only 18, and the price is $6,500.
Here is a link to a photograph of Memorare at the unveiling at the Booth Museum so that you can gauge the relative size of the work.
Here are recent blog posts I wrote as the work was being created:
- Sand Creek Sculpture at the Booth Museum
- Presenting Memorare Sand Creek
- I can’t change the human condition; all I can do is tell the story
The clay of Memorare, Sand Creek 1864 was also featured in the November issue of Western Art Collector magazine. You may read this article here.
To read about my community education event at the Denver Public Library, please read this page:
Sand Creek Massacre Panel Discussion, April 17, 2011.