Once upon a time in Lamy: Artist Thom Ross created a steel-hard metaphor for America's division
Sep. 15—LAMY — On a recent Saturday afternoon, Journal photographer Eddie Moore and I were standing behind Nuckolls Brewing at the Lamy Railyard, gazing over the train tracks into the green and brown high desert landscape and eternal blue sky.
Inside Nuckolls, musicians Johnny Lloyd and Tim Arnold performed Charlie Daniels' "Long Haired Country Boy," as Eddie and I waited for offbeat, over-the-top, one-of-a-kind outlaw artist Thom Ross to arrive.
Ross, California born and raised, but a Lamy resident since 2010, is known for his quirky approach to Western art and for ambitious, elaborate, outdoor tableaux depicting events such as the Battle of the Little Big Horn or Willie Mays' catch of Vic Wertz's deep fly ball in game one of the 1954 World Series.
On this day, along the railroad tracks here, Ross would be setting up his latest installation — his re-creation of the opening scene of director Sergio Leone's classic 1968 spaghetti Western "Once Upon a Time in the West."
The movie is considered by many to be one of the greatest of all spaghetti Westerns, so called because they were produced in Europe and usually directed by Italians. Some critics think "Once Upon a Time in the West" is among the best Westerns period, pasta or no pasta.
As the film opens, three toughs, portrayed by Woody Strode, Jack Elam and Al Mulock, wait at a frontier town depot for a man, played by Charles Bronson, to arrive on an incoming train.
Then there's a gunfight.
Lines in the sand
Lloyd and Arnold are playing "Ghost Riders in the Sky" as Britton Banowsky of Lamy Iron Works and Ross set up four life-size, painted steel figures, three, representing the characters played by Strode, Elam and Mulock, on one side of the tracks, the figure representing Bronson on the other side.
"Tracks divide good and evil," said Ross, 71. "We miss all the symbols in art, poetry and movies. 'Once Upon a Time in the West' is a great Western because it has this convoluted vision of good and evil.
"The crippled bad guy lives in a train car and rides right down the middle. He is crippled not only physically but spiritually. He is going to kill all these people and take their land. Bronson is wearing white pants, white coat, white hat. He is an angel, but he is an avenging angel.
"Writers, poets, moviemakers hide things in there most people don't see," Ross said.
Ross' art usually comes from historic events, the gunfight between the Earp brothers and the Clanton faction at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, for example.
But he believes that novels, Herman Melville's "Moby Dick"; poetry, Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"; and movies tell truths that transcend history.
"John Ford's (1946 film) 'My Darling Clementine' is, historically, the worst movie about the O.K. Corral, but the movie gets down to what (the gunfight) means," Ross said. "In 'My Darling Clementine,' the town (Tombstone) is on one side of Allen Street and the desert is on the other. No town is built like that. But Ford is obviously saying the Earps live in the town and the Clantons live in the desert. The division is between civilization and savagery."
Ross said there is always some kind of demarcation — in art, in literature, in life. It might be a street, a river, the line Lt. Col. William B. Travis drew in the sand at the Alamo.
Or railroad tracks.
Ross said hearing train whistles every day inspired him to do the "Once Upon a Time in the West" installation as a metaphor for America today.
"I have never seen America this divided," he said. "We meet on this line. Republican vs. Democrat, conservative vs. liberal, anti-abortion vs. pro-abortion."
'Don't paint posies'
Ross said he invested $3,000 and three weeks in creating the "Once Upon a Time in the West" art. He doesn't expect to make any money out of it. He has on occasion sold individual pieces from his installations, seven from his 200-figure Little Big Horn display. But he said some are stolen and most end up in storage.
"My job is to tell the story, not make money," Ross said. "When I do this stuff, I get this real connection, historically and metaphysically. My bottom line is this is what I am here to do."
Searching out the messages in art, literature and film is something Ross finds fascinating, but he is also an untiring reader of history. His art often reflects the odd fact his research has uncovered but most people find difficult to believe.
He has painted pictures of Modoc Indians playing croquet and Indians in warbonnets playing ping pong.
"This guy is yelling at me because he says it's demeaning for me to paint Indians playing ping pong," Ross said. "But that happened. I have a photograph. And Modocs played croquet. This is my thing, to find these stories.
"Artists don't know their history. They sell the same cliché over and over. The Indian with a frown on his face. The bugling elk, a tepee lighted from within. A horse with every strand of its mane blowing in the wind. They see what other people are doing, what is popular and then they do it. And they give themselves awards.
"I could go the easy route. I could paint the same three paintings over and over. But no. If you call yourself an artist, you better be one. Don't paint posies. Paint Indians playing ping pong."
'Two too many'
Ross took down the "Once Upon a Time in the West" figures just a few hours after setting them up. He doesn't want them near the tracks when trains rattle by.
He said he believes people enjoyed the installation.
"The movie came out 55 years ago," he said. "Half the people who saw it then are dead. But now, people can walk into it, interact with this thing that is totally fiction on railroad tracks in Lamy."
If you have ever seen the movie's opening scene, you probably remember it.
Bronson's character is playing an eerie strain on a harmonica when he meets the hard cases portrayed by Strode, Elam and Mulock at the depot.
He takes the harmonica from his lips and asks if they brought a horse for him.
Elam's character glances over his shoulder at the three horses at the hitching rail.
"Looks like we're shy one horse," he says.
Bronson's character shakes his head.
"You brought two too many."
That's when the shooting starts.
Ross intends to put the installation up again at the Lamy Railyard on Saturday, Sept. 21.
"What I would like to do with this installation is take it to Las Vegas (New Mexico) and then to Tokyo," he said. "Wherever there is a train track, people will know this is the beginning of that movie. It is that iconic."