Essays

Moseying: Living La Vida Llanero

Did Metal Silhouette Art originate on the Llano Estacado?
June 11, 2003

A few miles north of Jal, New Mexico is Brian Norwood’s “The Trail Ahead.” It is a huge metal silhouette art construction containing seventeen pieces each twenty feet long and twenty feet high. The artwork can be seen from five miles away. Cattle and drovers on horseback grace a hillside a quarter-mile west of Highway 18. Norwood has a great ability to create 3-D imagery from a 2-dimensional medium – some of the figures appear to be facing the observer, and others are veering to the side.

Norwood was inspired by a similar piece of art at Hominy, Oklahoma where fifteen figures of Indians on horseback loom over the town. Norwood has also done a metal art mural along the wall of the Jal Chamber of Commerce building. “The Trail Ahead” is awesome – everyone that has seen it tells me that they had to stop their car and stand and gape with amazement. It is the grandest example of a form of folk art that I believe began in the oil fields of the Llano Estacado about twenty-five years ago.

O.J. “Tiny” Welch, of Tatum, New Mexico began cutting out silhouettes in slack times, goofing around and amusing himself – give a man some sheet metal and a cutting torch and nothing much to do and it is amazing what can come of it! He began selling some of his work to friends on ranches. I first became aware of his work in the late 1970s when I noticed a ranch gate sign west of Jal about thirty miles. It depicts a house, a tree and cowboy getting blown over by the ubiquitous Llano Estacado wind.

In the early 1980s, while passing through Tatum, I discovered his shop. Over the years the operation he began has created tens of thousands of pieces, while developing a reputation and a business that now markets through the Internet and Warner Brothers stores nationwide. His son, Jerrell “Tex” Welch began helping him, and now grandson Ron Welch is part of the operation.

I lived and traveled all over the western United States in the 1970’s, and I do not remember seeing similar metal art anywhere else in those years. A couple of hours research on the Internet did not reveal any indication that the art form originated elsewhere. It has become an extremely popular form of ornamentation throughout the southwest. Several different genres have developed besides the original silhouette style.

The Welches and many other practitioners pride themselves that the cutouts are done by hand, freeform cutting along a chalkline on a piece of metal. American industrial ingenuity, however, has invented several types of machines that produce thousands of identical images. The machines are hooked up to a computer and a CAD program, allowing consistent reproduction of artistic and detailed designs. One website featuring such a machine has received 100,000 hits, which indicates the immense popularity of metal silhouette art.

In the last five years, several folks have been experimenting with various glazes on the cutouts, so that a rainbow of iridescent colors turns the images psychedelic. Gerald Martinez of northern New Mexico creates multicolored landscapes of the region – but the technique of applying color is unknown to me. At the Tesuque Flea Market down the hill from the Sante Fe Opera House, I recently discovered a new form (to me), where the artist applied different metals and solders to give color to his images.

Starting from the apparent original application of ranch gate ornamentation, metal art has gone beyond its Western roots. Originally most of images were of cowboys, Indians, and horses, but soon grew to include animal imagery, then images of machinery such as tractors and trains. Iconic images such as crosses, flags, religious figures can now be found as well.

As time went on, smaller images were invented for mailbox ornamentation, and then for outside wall or fence adornment. Metal art techniques and images spread to coat and hat racks, magazine racks, shelf bracket ornamentation, candle holders, curtain swags, weathervanes, and more. Some folks have revived the art of iron-casting, as well, adding yet another variation to the mix.

Today metal art is a major component of “Western Design.” I believe the ornamentation has two major antecedents. To me, the major influence is Hispanic. Ornate ironwork, from lighting sconces to wrought iron fences has been representative of Spanish speaking cultures for centuries, and may even date back to the Moorish invasion of Spain. Arabic ornamentation themes strongly influence Spanish style. I believe the other major predecessor of modern metal art is the ornate metal roof tiles installed in stores of the late 1800s, and the intricate castings of ornamental architectural elements of the Queen Anne period. Additionally, the ubiquitous Texas Star has been part of official ornamentation, gracing historical markers, survey markers and other cast-iron declarations of officialdom in the Lone Star State for most of its existence.

I am not a folk art historian, but merely an aficionado of metal art. I do not know if any master’s theses or doctorates have been produced on the subject. I am sure that others have differing perceptions, and I would like to hear them. If you know of publications on the subject or if you wish to hold forth, send me an email to bwilliams@sibleynaturecenter.org. It appeals to my Llanero chauvinism to believe that metal silhouette art began on the Llano Estacado, but I have not found enough resources to know definitively.

Metal art, as are murals, is the people’s art. We humans love to ornament our homes, fences, and landscapes with detail, to delight the eyes of passerby’s and ourselves. As Brian Norwood said in an interview, “We get to make our world what we want it to be.” Many of the images produced by metal silhouette artists are easily affordable to all – twenty to fifty dollars. Larger images and the more ornate and colorful products, however, can cost several hundred to several thousand dollars.

Take a little daytrip and run out to Jal – go out on 158 to Goldsmith, then take 302 to Kermit, and turn north on 18 until you see “The Trail Ahead” just north of Jal. The roundtrip is three hours, and if you cruise at west Texas “backroad” speeds, even less. Norwood’s sculpture is way cool!