A dream come true for me to have been selected as the artist in residence at Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in southwestern Colorado.
During my first day, I had a wonderful orientation with Amala Posey-Monk, who also gave me a tour of the beautiful visitor center museum. I was fortunate to go on a short behind-the-scenes tour with the curator as well.
Years ago, during the Dolores River Project, a dam was constructed to create the McPhee Reservoir. Before the area was flooded, archaeologists conducted a massive excavation and built this museum to house the nearly three million artifacts that were recovered.
This part of Colorado is rich with cultural sites. Thirteen of these sites are carefully preserved and open to the public, while the rest of the land has been allowed to return to its natural state in accordance with the wishes of the Pueblo tribes.
This residency is sponsored by the Southwest Colorado Canyons Alliance, who are housing me at the beautiful Ancient Echoes at Kelly’s Place on the southern edge of Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. My lovely casita looks out onto colorful cliffs, and there are many cultural sites located right here on the property.
On the second day, I toured the monument with the monument manager, Ray, along with Jeff and Amala. We traveled deep into the backcountry, looking for areas where people had been driving off-road where they weren’t supposed to and putting up signs to indicate that off-road vehicle travel is not allowed.
The monument covers an enormous landscape, and it was a wonderful opportunity to see so much of it while riding along with the park staff. Having a tour of the area with the rangers gave me a much better sense of the scale and character of this remarkable place.
I’ve set up a small sewing area in my casita and have been working on a couple of projects inspired by the colors of the surrounding landscape. This piece features some improv lettering. I’m planning to create a series of phrases about protecting public lands in this style and combine them into a larger art quilt.
Join me in the next post to see some spectacular pictures of the landscape.