Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Spirits in Rock


In my trek across the southwest, from Grand Canyon to Carlsbad Caverns, I stopped at a series of Native American archeological sites: The Canyon's Tusayan Ruin and Sky Tower; Wapatki National Monument; and Petrified Forest National Park. I saw the petroglyphs, the pictures and stories etched in stone by tribal artists, hundreds or thousands of years ago (up to 2,000 years, in the case of Petrified Forest). As I too tell stories with pictures, I felt a special connection to these indigenous cartoonists, across the gulf of time. After this brush with prehistory, I opened my sketchbook, and borrowed a few of the characters from the petroglyphs: a kachina (mysterious holy being) and the crested serpent, who is associated with water.  Perhaps the bit of the earthly breath that I caught at Wapatki's famous blowhole gave me inspiration.


Soon, I will post pictures and stories from my Grand Canyon hike....
 

No comments:

Post a Comment