I was recently in Arizona and New Mexico visiting friends and seeing fabulous galleries in Scottsdale and Santa Fe.
But it was even more amazing to see the origins of painting, on canyon walls in the Verde Valley of Arizona, that were created over 1200 years ago. Outside of Sedona, we drove on a dirt road out to Palataki Red Cliffs to see the dwellings there and the pictographs painted by the Singua people.
It was discovered that the rock painting above, with it's small grey triangles below a jagged line, seemed to suggest the mountain range directly behind it. On the summer solstice and the equinoxes, the sun rises exactly in line with the places on the mountain indicated by the small grey triangles on the rock painting.
Outside of Phoenix was the Deer Park Valley Rock Art Center, where we saw perhaps 1500 petroglyphs, markings carved into the stone. The art was only discovered in 1980 when a dam was being built to control flooding on Skunk Creek. Radiocarbon dating of petroglyphs at this site has resulted in ages that range from about 700 years to more than 10,000 years ago.
It's believed that this was art meant to communicate although we can't read the language now so we don't know what was intended. Were they spiritual messages? Often these paintings and carvings are found at what might be considered sacred places. And what might our work say today if uncovered in 1200 years? Will it be possible to read without an artist's statement?
