Mesa Verde by Lois Kershner

In “Mesa Verde” I was interested in capturing the dwellings of the Ancient Peoples (aka Anasazi) as just one layer of the many horizontal layers revealed to the viewer standing on an adjacent mesa ledge. From top-to-bottom one sees sky, mesa top bushes, sandy earth surface, rocky cliffs, constructed dwelling and kivas, and scrub brush of the canyon walls and basin. I chose to show a narrow vertical slice of this landscape – as though it were a core sample drilled out of the earth.

Exposed canvas plays an active role in the piece, just as the dirt of the earth is an active ingredient in this place. Some canvas is stamped with subtle background color which shows through the stitching. The illusion of scrub brush along the canyon walls is created with interpreted North American petroglyph symbols which were carved by the Ancient Peoples into the cliff walls surrounding their dwellings.