Catalog Entry from If These Walls Could Talk Exhibit, Neill-Cochran House 2020:

Why is this saddle upstairs in the Neill- Cochran House Museum? Good question. From my original story, formed in 2017, it has little to do with racial strife. But for this exhibit, it got “re- storied” by Jennifer, and to me that is a remarkable thing. She saw the white saddle as representative of the white horse of General Robert E. Lee. That horse was named Traveller, and he was famous and white. We heard a story that freed black people in the Wheatville area were afraid to walk by the big house because Lee’s ghost would appear on the front balcony. They avoided this place, and you would, too, if you saw a huge horse scrambling up the stairs and out on the balcony rearing its head, and its mount being the leader of the Confederacy. My story of the saddle is not a frightening one, but one of humility. It came about after mulling on Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. It was a holiday, so the town was bustling. Jesus was explicit about riding into town on a young donkey, knowing that the Roman Commander would be parading in from the other side on a handsome steed, all decked out, pompous and powerful. Then other Biblical images of donkeys came to mind, and I researched to find images in art history of them. One of the funniest stories is that of Balaam’s Ass, an early version of Mr. Ed, the talking horse. Not so funny is Abraham’s Sacrifice of Isaac, as the two trudge up the mountain with firewood for the altar, carried by a donkey. The fourth image comes from the scary scene of the Flight into Egypt, where legend has it that Mary rode on the donkey that had brought her to Bethlehem. I chose images from four different cultures as my models for relief carving, which is somehow akin to leather tooling. I decided not to paint it a leather color, but to leave it white, after a friend’s suggestion. On top of the saddle is a rendition of a William Blake painting—its composition perfectly fit the shape of the seat. An aesthetic match like that is not to be ignored. I learned that the winged angels protected the mercy seat, that is, the center of the Ark of the Covenant (recall Raiders of the Lost Ark?) Imagine sitting on the golden ark that contained the tablets of law that God gave to Moses. The ark also contained a bit of the manna that fell in the wilderness to sustain the escaping Israelites, and therefore is a key object in Jewish studies, one I know little about, except that it exudes the overworked word “awesome.” But I do know that the link between awe and humility is deep-rooted and indelible.