The story behind the artwork

The third painting in my Death Valley series, reveal, was inspired by something I saw while walking through a slot canyon in the Artist's Palette area of Death Valley National Park. The canyon walls were steep and a brownish red. Turn after turn the colors were relatively similar, until suddenly I came across what seemed to be the scene of a new incident. There was evidence of a large rock fall. A pile of rock debris was lying on the canyon floor. Directly above it was a discolored streak rising 60 feet to a visible hole which exposed a very different coloration of rock. It was pale and chalky, and this color peppered the trail from high on the canyon wall to the rock pile at my feet.

Every thing around me was still and quiet, but I tried to imagine the event that had recently occurred. What sound did it make? Was there a loud cracking sound before the rock gave way? Did the earth tremble? What a rare sight it would be to see an event like this.

Recently, a giant arch in Arches National Park broke. A huge piece of sandstone finally gave out in the dark of night after eons of erosion. There were no witnesses. These are the thoughts that cross my mind whenever standing beneath a piece of natural architecture. At some point gravity will win and rocks will fall. How many eroded grains does it take before the entire block falls? When the time is right, our ever evolving landscape sometimes takes a leap and the reorganization of mere grains jumps to spectacular movements of large blocks. That is why I like to remind myself that Geologic Time is now. This evidence reminds me again to respect the delicate nature of our ever-changing planet.

reveal
acrylic on canvas
36x12"

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Read more about Death Valley's geology.