I shot this photo at the edge of the Grand Canyon. I love the crackled texture, like wrinkled elephant skin.

This shot is also from Escalante. We saw rock formations like it outside Zion, too. There they called it “checkerboard” and you can see why. It looks man made but is completely natural. I like this shot because of its dynamic graphic composition. I may have to visit it again the next time I’m thinking through designs.

Below is Checkerboard Mesa just outside Zion National Park. Similar formations but on a much larger scale.

These shots are from a hike we did in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. It’s BLM land and much less developed than the national parks. This hike was to two slot canyons, Peekaboo and Spooky. First we drove 26 miles down a gravel road, then turned off for another mile and a half of a very rutted road. On the way out we almost landed in a ditch trying to avoid the potholes. I was afraid we were going to roll the car.

Once we found the parking lot we followed  cairns of stones down into a dry wash. It was all very beautiful and I was glad we were there in Spring.  It looks like it would be blazing hot in July and August.

the family heading down into the wash

inside Peekaboo Canyon

Peekaboo Canyon was amazing to explore but challenging, too. We had to scramble up a sheer rock face to get up into it (!) and there was one spot where it was so narrow we had to take off our packs to squeeze through. It was exhilirating to be in such a remote environment of  natural beauty. The national parks are so processed and served up to you. The down side of the undeveloped land is that it’s harder to get around and find things. We never did find Spooky, the other slot canyon, even though we wandered around quite a bit. We finally decided to head in for the day. It gives us a reason to go back and explore some more.

peekaboo!

eroded stone in the canyon

rock formations we spotted while wandering around looking for Spooky

detail of the stone

goodbye to Escalante

This one is actually Lichen of the Day. This is also from a hike in Zion National Park. I love the spiral and the way the color gradates along the edges.

This is from one of our hikes in Zion National Park. I love the way the tree root has split this giant boulder. You can imagine the tendril of a root finding a crack in what seemed like solid stone and then incrementally widening it year after year. When I happened upon it the tree was long gone, but the root stayed on. Talk about a force of nature!

This is still outside Zion. We went on a great hike just before we went through the tunnel that takes you into Zion Canyon. There was really interesting terrain and rocks (!) along this pretty easy and very popular hike. At the top we had amazing views down into the side canyon that leads into Zion.

Part of the reason I like this image is because the coloration and pattern are so different from most of what we saw. The curvilinear shapes feel very organic and the contrast is heightened by the warm colored sand sifted into the cracks. It reminds me of the view out the window of an airplane.

Here’s another one from the same location, outside Zion. It was an erratic boulder, nothing like it nearby. The formation on this is so different from the layered strata of everything around it. If there was ever a place that made one want to become a geologist, the Southwest would do it. Again, inspiration for surface design texture.

I’ve been in a bit of a post-show funk. Mostly working on catching up, teaching, and making a giant man-eating plant costume for my daughter’s middle school performance of Little Shop of Horrors. I had grand ideas of writing a long blog about the amazing rocks I saw in the SW. I have many, many photos.

So here is the beginning of that in bite size pieces. This is from outside Zion National Park. It was just a spot along the road where we pulled off and spent time climbing around on the amazing formations.

I love the way the strata of the formation splits off and the way the color of the lichen echoes the dark in the stone. Below is another shot from the same location, larger scale. The movement and flow are amazing. Lots of inspiration here.

My family and I just got back from a Spring Break trip to Northern Arizona and Southern Utah. We hiked, ate sandwiches, and had lots of time in the car since we visited the Grand Canyon, Antelope Canyon, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, and The Grand Staircase of the Escalante all in eight days.

The absolute highlight for me was Antelope Canyon. It is located just outside Page, Arizona. You need to have a Navajo “guide” to explore the canyon which means you basically have to pay an entrance fee. I don’t mind giving the folks on the Res some money, they’ve have it tough, but if you go, don’t bother going into town and paying for a guided tour. You can drive right up to the site outside town and pay at the entrance. There are two sections, Upper Antelope and Lower Antelope. We went to Lower Antelope, it’s longer and narrower.

I’ve never experienced anything like it. We entered it through an crack in the ground and as we went along it got deeper, enveloping us in undulating walls of coral colored stone. Eroded by water, the stone echoes its curves and eddies. It was created over millenia by flash floods (11 people died during a flash flood in 1997) but the violence of that water is nowhere to be seen. It is serene and opulent, a natural cathedral in the Earth.

I’m in that place where the new ideas feel just out of reach and you can almost catch them out of the corner of your eye. It’s a time to let them be, let them simmer until they’re ready to come out to play. If you try to grab them before they’re formed they’ll just disappear.

I’ve had glimpses of a new format. I want to work with sheers, holes, and transparency. I’m thinking about the toner transfers that Larry showed during our class and working with imagery and scale. I keep thinking about ghosts.

So I’ve been thinking about transparency, and my daughter comes home from school with this skeleton of a jack o’ lantern flower she found on her walk home. The sun was shining brightly through the window (for a change!) and I took a series of photos. I love the interplay between the object and the shadow. The next day a skeletonized leaf was stuck in my car door. Thoughts are powerful. You have to be careful about what you manifest around here.