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Nothing says American pride like eagle feathers or, more precisely, the positioning of said feathers.

That's the blithe version of how Santa Fe artist Daniel Martinez came to redefine the official great seal of the state of New Mexico — and how, he says, in the process he ruffled enough official feathers to force him to divorce himself completely from the finished product.

Martinez was art director for the state Department of Tourism when in 2001 he decided to revamp the state seal for the post-Sept. 11, 2001, era.

The official seal, for those who haven't looked lately, depicts an American bald eagle with outstretched wings and three arrows clutched in its talons. Hunched in its shadow is a somewhat scrawnier Mexican eagle bearing a snake and a chunk of cactus.

But Martinez said he was unsettled by the bald eagle's wimpy wing positioning, its feathers pointing down in a sort of lazy, limp-wristed stance unbecoming of an American eagle, especially one suddenly challenged by terrorism.

"The wings are down like real birds do after they've cleaned themselves, like they are drying out," said Martinez, who became something of a historian and an avian expert in the process. "I wanted the wings up like birds do when they are protecting something."

"Wings up" is more American, he argued. The presidential seal uses that stance, for instance.

"People didn't know we were part of the United States," he said of New Mexico. "So we used wings up in the seal to insinuate that we are part of the United States and very proud of it."

Martinez was also not pleased with just three arrows, symbolic of the state's tricultural heritage.

"But we're more than that," he said. "We are a great state because of all the people and the cultures of the world."

So he added a quiver-full.

All of which may seem like mundane minutiae but which is taken very seriously in a state that puts so much importance on proclaiming official state cookies, state cowboy songs, state ties and state questions on chile preference.

As it turns out, though, New Mexico has several variations on the state seal, each with the requisite birds, arrows, cacti and the obtuse motto "Crescit eundo," and each vetted by the Secretary of State's Office.

Martinez's patriotic and arrowed rendition became one of 12 approved versions of the Great Seal of New Mexico.

Briefly, he said, it was selected as the seal of choice for the Department of Tourism, though today the department does not use any seal.

Metro Court judges in Albuquerque also selected Martinez's seal in 2004 to imprint on their official stationery. His version is visible in every courtroom and in a bronze casting embedded in the courthouse rotunda.

"The judges thought it was an attractive seal because the eagle appears to be in high alert," Metro Court spokeswoman Janet Blair said.

Martinez should have been flying high with his winged success. Instead, he said he has suffered for his art and has been bullied by higher-ups who disdain his seal tweaks.

Change, even in eagle feathers, never comes easy in New Mexico.

"It seemed to me they wanted somebody's head to roll for this controversy," he said. "It became very political, and I didn't design the seal for some politician. I designed it for the people."

He was transferred in December 2005 from the Tourism Department to the state printing office. Last December, he said he took early retirement at age 55 because of the controversy.

But Tourism Communications Director Mike Stauffer said he doesn't recall any controversy.

"I don't remember there ever being any problem except in making sure it was the right seal and the secretary of state would approve the seal," Stauffer said.

Metro Court's Blair said she is unaware of any seal controversy.

No matter. Today, Martinez was expected to hand Metro Court officials everything he still possesses having to do with the seal.

"I need to put an end to this bad time in my life," he said.

The eagle, for him, has landed.