foto by kat livengood
the desert is a mysterious place
although most folks think
its always been high and dry
full of sand and rock
lizards, coyotes, dark birds
and not a tree in sight
a murder of crows
sould
june 2010 after trip to badlands
but that wasnt always so
about 70 million years ago
the badlands of new mexico
was an oceanfront tropical forest
with 200 foot tall conifer like cypress and palm trees
inhabitited by tyranosaurus rex and a multitude
of carnivorous dinosaurs
crawling the land
with monstrous crockadiles patroling the waters edge
looking for an unfortunate snack
foto by kat livengood
but at some point millions of years ago
in a hellish scenerio
a huge explosion took place on earth
that blew sulphur and dirt
into the atmospere blocking the sun
which created "The Great Dying"
and the end of the Dinosaurs
and the beginning of the reign of mammals
Desert Horse
the bisti badlands is a well known
graveyard of dinosaur bones
and long dead petrified trees
but the anasazi also lived near this land
building complex cultures and trade routes
all the way to mexico
and you have to wonder
as many people lived here
where were these people buried?
roota
doll made after badlands
and if thay werent buried
do there heads peak up out of the rock
like petrified wood
or dinosaur bones after a big rain thru the arroyo
or do their bodys become part of the land
like an odd rock or a strange formation
that reminds us of something human
wild horses
sould
painting the week after the journy to badlands
that day at the badlands
when we were looking
at petrified wood
and thnking about the blue oceans
that once covered this high desert
we wondered where the anasazi
were buried and
if the old roads really lined up with the stars
but it was the two horses
running wild and free
that burned into my mind
how simple and powerful
things are out here
on the land
foto by kat livengood
we had heard of some dinosaur tracks
just outside of moab
so we took off north straight into Utah
and followed the colorado river
eventually finding ourselves
on a dirt road that took us to a dead end
so i got out of the truck
and did some land art with rocks
that began to take on the form
of a marker of some sort
foto by kat livengood
memory is what i often paint
not mine or anyone in particular
but i like to think
im tapping into some sorta collective rememberance
from the land
of something from the past
that tales a story
that we can learn from
outlier
sould
big oily painted after return from Badlands
after all
we all tale our storys and wanna be rememberd
but maybe the land we are buried on
has more than our bones
maybe it carrys our memory