“Another standard icon of Texas is the oil field drilling rig. Since the first wildcat wells exploded with crude in the 1930s, the myth of Texas has been that it strikes it rich in oil, or ‘black gold.’ The state's economy literally floats on a bed of light sweet crude. Many of Texas's great fortunes were built by wildcatters who struck it rich and bought respectability. However, once the well has been brought in, the drilling rig is replaced by the pump jack. In Humanscape 116: Texas Workhorse, Casas plays on the equine form and manner of the ubiquitous pump jack. Indeed, Casas turns it into the favorite mount of the Texas oilman, shown in silhouette against the endless wheat fields and arid mesas of the Texas High Plains. Casas transforms the steel head of the jack, making it more triangular and horse-like, and lets it drop down from the screen like a horse grazing over the top rail of a board fence. In the 19th century, the quarter horse was the workhorse of the cattle rancher and cowboy alike, but today, Casas suggests, the horse that rules the Texas plains is the pump jack. Nothing is more certain to warm the heart of the modern Texan than a field of these steel steeds bobbing up and down like grazing ponies as they bring up the light sweet Texas crude.” - Nancy Kelker, Mel Casas: Artist as Cultural Adjuster