America’s Got Talent

What’s so much fun about The Trail of Painted Ponies is the opportunity it gives us to discover artistically talented people in surprising places. I get a particular kick out of this, remembering the unsuccessful efforts that were made to involve well-known artists in painting a Pony when we first conceived of The Trail of Painted Ponies back in 2001. I have a special memory of an exchange with a cowboy artist who was a member of a prestigious western arts organization. Sure, he said, he’d be glad to paint a Pony. So I arranged to deliver one of the life-size Ponies to his studio for him to paint. A month later I called to check on the progress. A different-sounding person apologetically said he had racked his brain trying to come up with an idea that a horse-shaped canvas would accommodate, but nothing had come and would I mind coming and picking up the horse?

In contrast, there is Amber Sielesnew’s story. Amber is a twenty-six year old mother of two from Pierceton, Indiana, north of Indianapolis. Her mother is a fireman, her father a policeman. They also run a family business outfitting police cars with LED lights and camera systems. A few years back someone gifted her parents with a couple of Painted Pony figurines: Patrol Horse and Fireman Pony, of course. They were hooked.

As Painted Ponies became a part of their lives, Amber’s mother would regularly visit our website, where she saw that The Trail was continually inviting creative people to submit designs. So she began to encourage her daughter to try her hand at painting a Pony. Amber grew up with horses. The very first horse that came to live on their little farm was a Buckskin mare named Sandy. As a hobby, Amber would sketch pictures – mainly in pencil and ink – and some of her renderings were very well received. One was even chosen as a US postage stamp in an endangered species contest for children.

Amber titled the design she came up with “Buckskin,” and it featured several well-worn dollar bills wrapped around a rearing Pony form. Not knowing what to expect, she sent the drawing to us. We thought it was clever idea, but the image Amber sent was a two-dimensional drawing and we weren’t sure how it would translate onto a three-dimensional form. We were intrigued enough, however, to offer to send her one of the rearing Paint Your Own Pony kits, and invite her to see what she could do. We also asked her to have her mother take pictures of her working on her Pony.

A package arrived at our offices just yesterday. It included the completed “Buckskin,” a CD with images of Amber painting her Pony, and a letter in which Amber said, “As he is now complete it occurs to me he represents many things: the current state of our economy, the strength of the dollar, our desire to earn money, maybe even the amount of money we have wrapped up in our love of our horses… real or collectable.”

We think Amber did a wonderful job, and that her story serves as an illustration, inspiration and invitation for creative and talented people everywhere to try their hand at painting a Pony. (To order a Paint Your Own Pony Kit, Click Here.
To view other designs created by artists painted on a Paint Your Own Pony Kit,
Click Here.)

What do you think?