PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE
Tuesday, April 17, 2012 at 9:48PM Tweet Brilliant accidents…the double exposure, 1938. Vernacular photograph of the West from the My-West.com photography collection.
© My-West.com Photography Collection. All rights reserved.
Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 4:39PM Tweet By Donna Poulton
An ice cream party, 1902. Credit: Photographing Montana 1894-1928, The Life and Work of Evelyn Cameron In 1889, Evelyn Cameron left the gentrified home of her parents in England to follow her husband, Ewen, to the desolate prairieland of eastern Montana. When their initial venture of raising polo ponies in Montana failed, Evelyn turned to glass-plate photography to help support the family. Over the next 30 years she photographed life and work on the ranch and that of their neighbors. Her compelling views of domestic work, wildlife (especially coyotes, wolves and birds), and ranching came with the familiarity of having done much of the same work herself.
"Evelyn kneading a panful of dough in her kitchen, August 1904. Anxious to give her nieces in England a glimpse of the day-to-day life she led in Montana, she made up an album of photographs including several portraits of herself at work." - Donna M. Lucey. Credit: Photographing Montana 1894-1928, The Life and Work of Evelyn Cameron.At age twenty-five Cameron wrote in her diary…”I wish I could lead a life worthy to look back upon.” Fearless, self-assured and determined Cameron left a legacy of images that equals any work being done at that time and a personal history unrivaled by most western fiction.
"Evelyn on a petrified tree in the badlands displaying a copy of "The Bystander" magazine, which was conducting a contest for photographs of the magazine being read in the most unusual locations. She clambered out 'as far as I dared,' across the 72-foot-long natural bridge, hampered by her skirt, which kept snagging on the rock. The photograph was published in the British magazine." -- Donna M. Lucey. Credit: Photographing Montana 1894-1928, The Life and Work of Evelyn Cameron.Equally compelling is the story of Donna M. Lucey who tenaciously researched the story of Evelyn Cameron. After following a rumor about a cache of pioneer photography, Lucey traveled to eastern Montana in 1979. There she found over 2000 glass-plate negatives and all of Evelyn’s journals and letters in the fervent care of Janet Williams who had inherited the ranch when Evelyn died in 1928. With Cameron’s life’s work intact, Lucey wrote Photographing Montana 1894-1928, The Life and Work of Evelyn Cameron.
Credit: Photographing Montana 1894-1928, The Life and Work of Evelyn Cameron.
Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 11:19PM Tweet By Bennett Owen
They are America’s ancient art form…
Newspaper Rock, Credit: Amy the Nurse
…the pictographs (painted onto the rock) and petroglyphs (pecked or carved into the rock) that adorn the sheer rock faces of the desert southwest…
More than seven thousand of these masterpieces have been catalogued in Utah alone
Petroglyphs, Capital Reef National Park, Credit: John Sternenberg
Inexplicable, quixotic and enduring...gestures from the past that call upon us to stop, to linger, to ponder their mysterious beauty...
Petroglyphs in Valley of Fire State Park: Credit: Alaskan Dude
Steeped in the aromas of the desert, the hum of stillness and the immeasurable nuances of red. The singularity of the petrogylphs cannot be separated from the vast environment in which they reside....
Credit: akseabird
They are every bit as mysterious as they are beautiful archaeologists and historians differ on their meanings and origins…
Credit: AlphaTangoBravo / Adam Baker
Some are maps and warnings, others chronicle actual event.
The Hunt, Credit: C. G. P. Grey
It seems early humans also sought immortality through art….
Their age is uncertain since carbon dating techniques are inaccurate on rocks...
Estimates range from hundreds of years to five millennia...
Credit: Beth M527
Otherwise, the who, why, how and what continue to confound the intellect and arouse the imagination.
Largo Canyon Petroglyph, New Mexico, Credit: Kurt Wagner
One thing the experts do agree on is the vital need to preserve these treasures from the relentless ravishing of nature.
The Great Gallery, Horseshoe Canyon, Utah, Credit: Matt Knoth
From the careless and malicious destruction wrought by treasure seekers and mindless saboteurs.
Newspaper Rock, Utah, Credit: Sam_Wise
The Canyonlands Natural History Association is at the forefront of that task…a private foundation working in concert with the national parks, lending expertise and funding to a broad variety of preservation efforts.
Detail Newspaper Rock, Credit: sfgamchick
The CNHA is mourning the loss of Bud Turner, an ingenious and intrepid chronicler of ancient art in the southwest. As chief investigator for CNHA’s Discovery Pool project, he spearheaded a ‘spectral imaging’ campaign that has revealed fascinating glimpses into the native masterpieces…documenting and aiding in their preservation and restoration.
An Indian elder once said, “In order to understand rock art, turn your back to the images and take in the surroundings. Only then will you begin to understand the message.“
Dead Tree, Credit: Matt Bargar