[Previous entry: "Back to Square One"] [Next entry: "Collectors & Investors"]

08/19/2005: "Prehistoric Spirits"

I’ve been on the road for 10 days now delivering a large painting to a client in El Paso TX. I then spent three nights in Tucson with my son’s family. I spent a night in the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument in western New Mexico where I wanted to see the pueblos in the cliffs and do some watercolors. I took some photos of pictographs painted on a cliff face around the time that the renaissance was beginning in what is now Italy some 700 years ago (there were also some petro-glyphs that may go back to AD 100). I began wondering why they did that? From a contemporary artist’s point of view there were no collectors to buy their artwork. Selling one’s art seems to be a huge topic on the Absolutearts forum. So in that sense what was the point? There was no trade value in a painting on a cliff face that couldn’t be transported to another canyon or traded for hides or flint or copper. I suppose they could charge admission like the Parks Service does today but I can’t imagine that the Indian Artist who painted it had much of a national reputation at that point in time. There wasn’t that much of an art scene in America yet. Besides, they also made pottery which in fact they did trade to other tribes. You could say the pottery was their more commercial endeavor while the cliff paintings were more personal expressions.



So why make it in the first place? Home decor? But no, these were not painted in the pueblo. There were no interior paintings found there. There were a few pictographs painted on the rocks above the caves but nothing inside. These paintings were on a cliff about a quarter to a third of a mile away from the pueblo, near a second cave dwelling that was much smaller.
And there was some investment of time, thought, energy and materials involved in the creation of these paintings. In fact, before they could even make the paintings they had to figure out where to find pigments that wouldn’t wash away or fade in the open so a certain amount of time and thought were invested.



Is this stuff just Prehistoric Graffitti? Maybe... It has some similarities to contemporary graffiti. It is etched or painted onto public surfaces, in this case a cliff wall along a path that would have been traversed by others from the clan or tribe or seen later by other clans. This was not hidden deep in the back of some cave. These were meant to be public art if you will. There are similar subjects in contemporary graffiti...some categories might include friends and lovers names and or messages to same, braggadocio or chest thumping which is a kind of history if you will, communication with the larger tribe or spirits/supreme being with subjects such as prayers for a good hunt or crop or journey etc.. however I don’t think they were in a hurry to just ‘tag’ everything they could. They were selective. Certainly they didn’t think of this as defacing public property like most of our society thinks of graffiti today. There is the suggestion of something valuable, venerable, and spiritual at work in the pictograms that doesn’t often happen in graffiti. (although graffiti style murals in LA and NY are often done to commemorate the passing of a loved gang member or member of the community.)



While, in fact these are just stick figures in most cases, there is an aesthetic at work in which shapes repeat abstractly in variation creating visual rhythms and rhymes. So there is a visual sophistication that appears in both the cliff pictographs and modern graffiti. Many ‘tags’ are designed like commercial logos with a certain amount of sophistication and shape similarity. There is truly a sense of creative expression at work.

OK. So there is some primary or vital connection to the urge to ‘tag’. But what is that all about?

Historians don’t seem to understand why that second dwelling was so far from the main pueblo. Was this possibly the home of a shaman and his family. Maybe he/she was the artist. Shamen in primitive societies often seem to live somewhat outside the circle of intimacy that the larger clan enjoys. Maybe this too is somewhat like many artists today who find their domicile and studio in the cheaper parts of town often forsaken by the rest of their family or clansmen who buy the work to hang in their wealthy showcase homes up on the hill.



The fact that the work was done on a cliff that could be viewed by a large number should they gather in front of it in the small meadow and grove of trees seems important. Although I really don’t know if the grove and meadow were in the same place then...maybe the Gila River passed directly in front of the cliff wall at the time. My geology class was not my best class. But the literature said they supplemented their hunting and gathering by growing corn and other crops nearby. So I assume the meadow hasn’t changed all that much. The cliff wall had the effect of a drive in movie screen where people might have sat on rocks or the ground to view it. Maybe it was a kind of posting wall where revelations, news, history or other information might be posted for the community to consider. Or maybe somewhat like the altar of a cathedral where the true believers sit in pews to view the art as a form of religious education and worship. Or even somewhat like a picture gallery or museum with many images hung salon style. I’m not an anthropologist, or a geologist or a sociologist. But my knowledge of how an artist works kept me thinking about these various scenarios all during my drive from the cliffs to Fort Worth where I spent a couple nights with my younger brother and his family.



I went to sleep later the next night at my brother’s in a room quite similar to those at the cliff pueblo with only a single mattress placed simply on the floor with no paintings on the walls, little furniture (a dresser with a few drawers) and only a floor lamp. I stared at the ceiling thinking how very similar life is even now in this modern age with cars and computers and rockets to the moon. We still grow our own food in the ground, we still sell and trade goods for a living, we still make love and war and we still take colored mud and apply it to surfaces as a form of self expression, communication among our peers and both personal and communal spirituality. We still find this form of expression satisfying. Is painting really dead?

Replies: 24 Comments

on Tuesday, September 6th, walt said

Thanks Doc.

on Tuesday, September 6th, russian doctor said

I like this blog too.

on Saturday, August 27th, walt said

Hyacinthe,
I love metaphor. Straw horses eh? I think I've read this somewhere. You know they've genetically traced the Navaho to the Mongolians. I haven't doubted the fact that Native Americans (el norte, centro o sud) came from either Asia, Europe, Africa, the Indonesian/Australian archepalagos and possibly from all of the above. There are just so many significantly cultural continuities and connections. And while I discount ancient space ships (maybe discount isn't the best term, how about I simply assume that there is another metaphor at work here somehow) I do think they have always known more about their own origens than we Europeans were willing to grant them.

on Friday, August 26th, Hyacinthe Baron said

Here's more of the mystery. The Hopi, at least according to White Bear, claim to have come across the waters to what we can assume was the Yucatan Penninsula. They say they rode horses made of straw. The last stage of their journey was on stepping stones. They had to underground for their five emergences. Each time they came out it was a different world with a different clan in charge. The Proof that they were in South America, or Mexico? They had a PARROT CLAN. Parrots now live in Arizona however they are recent. More PROOF. Their joker Kachina, the one with the black and white stripes. Well he has two horns, just like Michelangelo's statue of Moses. No one ever believed it possible until Thor Hyerdahl made the reverse trip. The part about the space ships? Too far out even for me. However there is so much more than I can put in this blog. As I said I wrote three fiction fantasy novels about all the secrets. They are on Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble et al. Just put my name in and they will come up. I always enjoy feedback.

on Friday, August 26th, walt, said

Hyacinthe,

I keep forgetting to note a similarity to the coded signs that hobos used to leave to let other hobos know who might give them a meal, have some day work for them, a barn to sleep in, where the mean dogs lived and the really nasty constables waited in hiding to catch them around the train yard. I think that this is a more accurate simily to some of the cliff paintings (pictures as signs) as you've so aptly explained. All the liturature at the Gila site suggest that the Mogollons may have joined the tribes who later became the Hopi. Although some suggest that they may have dropped down into Mexico to join some of the native Americans there. Probably there are old Hopis who know the answer to some of these secrets but aren't talking.

The spirituality has to do with the entire lifestyle. Life is a journey. Others can leave signs and messages to teach you the way and that just feeding and clothing your tribe is a spiritual activity. The spirtual aspect is not always so...apocalyptic.

Thanks for the insights.

on Friday, August 26th, walt said

Hyacinthe,

I talked about a conversation I had a year and a half ago with Cherokee crystal healer about the Reptile Clan and the whole idea of the Star People. Curiosly enough one of the photos I took, although I didn't include it in this blog, is a single figure in a circle something like da Vinci's canon for movement and proportion. I've seen similar images in other prehistoric sites and in books. Many feel these could be some kind of space ship. I'm a healthy skeptic. But I'm open to hearing interpretations of things that haven't been proven one way or another. I was telling someone just the other day that I really had to fight the urge to make the drive from the Gila cave dwellings over to Roswell. I'm a curious camper and am always interested in these things. I got a copy of Project Blue Book when I was in Jr. High. I'm in that category that believe anything is possible but not many things are probable. I'd love to be proven wrong on this one.

on Wednesday, August 24th, Hyacinthe Baron said

Thanks for sharing your trip. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Now here is the absolute truth as told to me by White Bear, one of the spiritual leaders of the Hopi nation who told me many secrets and inspired my published trilogy of Cassandra's Tear: "Hyacinthe we Hopi had to travel the circle 5 times after we emerged the last time. We had to do this before we could settle down in our homeland on the mesas. Now, we were divided into clans and advised never to eat with strangers so we kept to ourselves. We had to find a way to communicate with the other clans. We left messages on the rocks as we passed on our travels."
Yup. Definitely a "Kilroy was here!" type of thing. So where does this leave all the spirituality we try to imbue the rock paintings with?
Well White Bear also told me of a secret that he alone held and that all tribes knew of and that if revealed it would herald the end of this the fifth world. So the Hopi and the Navajo put their arms around each other and walked out on the court hearing their land dispute, RATHER THAN RISK THE REVELATION.
And then White Bear invited me up to the mesa to watch the space ships land. True story. An answer?

on Wednesday, August 24th, walt said

Dear Sedgemonkey,
Of course I was being facetious about Native Artists' having or thinking about national reputations. I always think of the Greek pottery we learned so much about in art history and the fact that primarily these were for storing olives, olive oil, wine and other things. They were essentially package design rather than the kind of art that we might place in a gallery today. Our ideas about what constitutes art is a very new idea, only a few hundred years old with the most avant garde thinking only about 100 years old. But we often times assume this is always how people thought about art.

on Tuesday, August 23rd, sedgemonkey said

Ancient Native American national art reputation? Now that's an interesting thought. I've never really thought about the native peoples of the Americas having "galleries" where people come from all around to see, but why not?

on Tuesday, August 23rd, walt said

Brad, I don't know whether or not the 'art' was a skill handed down. I assume it was because this particular tribe, as you suggested, made their own clothes, pottery, hunting implements and cerimonial artifacts. Surely there was a tradition there that had been handed down for some time. And therefore there was 'teaching' going on. Sure, somewhere down the halls of time a 'first man' (or first woman) realized their creative urges and made the first painting. These are not those. These are not the caves Ron mentioned at Altimira or Lascaux. These are much more recent, only about 700 years old.

And yes I really don't believe the basic urge to make art changes much at all through time anymore than the urge to eat, sleep, have *** or form communities has changed all that much. We nearly worship change, often for its own sake in this society...without much attention to those things that remain among the mostly surface, fascile and shallow changes that we recognize. We sometimes act as if evolution were something one could see happening from day to day. While change is constant there are aspects of our lives and nature that are even more constant.

By the way BMM, I'm sorry we couldn't meet up while I was in Fort Worth. I must have driven quite near you on the way out and in again. Maybe next time, eh?

on Tuesday, August 23rd, Ann Isik said

I like very much reading your blogs Walter, time permitting. This time you have excelled indeed. Thank you for taking the time to share your trip and for the wonderful images. Cave paintings make the hair stand up on the back of my neck, especially seen 'for real'. I feel that I am looking at the dawn of human consciousness, in the presence of my own ancestors and my own artist-ancestors and looking at the great mystery that is the urge to create.

I am, in my neck of the woods, in reach of Lascaux:

http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/

on Monday, August 22nd, Brad Greek said

Hello Walter,
I've always enjoyed your responces on the forums, and respect your knowledge of our business called "Art". Your descriptive writing skills has brought us all along with you on this journey, Thanx! I think this proves that man has always had a drive to create. And I believe it would be safe to say that these early artists probably never seen art before their time. Let alone had anyone show them how to do it. What probably started at an early age of using a stick to draw in the sand, then the use of pigments used on their clothing was implemented on other objects. I can only imagine that they spent alot of their time creating usable items, that one was bound to branch out to those walls.

on Monday, August 22nd, jose said

It’s good to be able to read your accounts again Walt. Could it be that there is some kind of untraceable thread that leads us all the way back to those first successful – and selfless – manifestations of creativity? I believe there is and I believe most of the comments to this blog so far are a testament to its existence. Thanks for allowing us to accompany you in some way on this very special journey you made.

on Sunday, August 21st, walt said

There is always a lot of speculation about what these images are really about, why they were made, how did they function in the life of the community...few answers are precise... Brad, I've also been to Bandelier and seen the petroglyphs there and your response is probably on the mark at one level or another. I find these kinds of images exciting purely because there is another reason than the making of money or even the exchange of goods. However much I believe an artist is worth their hire I am always drawn to the pure form of art for the spirits sake. Olga, who knows if these will become the basis of a new series or if they will simply be generalized inspiration. So, OK Thomas, I'll take your criticism under advisement. Somebodies gotta point out the warts and all or life would just be too rosey. Just don't ask to see the holes in my side or in the palms of my hands.

on Sunday, August 21st, Olga said

Bravo, Ron! Your comment for Thomas is excellent. Walter, again, thanks for the blog.

on Saturday, August 20th, Andrew said

Good blog, Walter. It's certainly food for thought. If I try to imagine what would turn someone into an artist in a primitive society, I dream of a child whose talent is recognized by an elder, and who is then taught the tribal secrets of how to make colors, and have them last when used. Perhaps he's also trained in what imagery to use to bring good fortune to his tribe. Almost like the child who's very quick on his feet, spotted by those with the experience to know, and then trained to become a hunter or a warrior. I also imagine these societies needed to find their best candidates for every skill they used in their community.
The graffiti you mention in our own time has one big difference from what I imagine in those times, if only because a relatively small part of our society does it, and appreciates it. Those primitive wall paintings were, I believe, appreciated, and maybe even revered, by pretty much everyone in the tribe.
The finish was important, too, very much worth remembering. Painting is certainly not dead.

on Saturday, August 20th, john davis said

hello mr king
i'm also glad you are back to aaa., and i enjoyed your blog very much.i would imagine the artist at the time felt he had something important to say, be it for love or politics or was he just a dreamer, whatever the reason aren't you glad now that he did it?

on Saturday, August 20th, Ron Massey said

Can the man not mention a certain small success which has led to an enjoyable travel experience, without being branded a bragger ??
Thomas, I think it takes a lot of insecurity to go digging that up out of one sentence in an entire blog and then use it against the writer. Think about it.

on Friday, August 19th, Thomas Williams said

Eliminate that first sentence and there is good writing in this blog somewhere. Just have to have those bragging rights in there! You will learn someday Walter, that bragging is just a sure sign of insecurity!

on Friday, August 19th, Vlad said

A true artist understands. Knowledge of how an artist works is not the same as an artist working! Many people make art, very very few, are artists. The true artist places his, and the worlds, soul in unison, mixes it with materials, and applies it so people can contemplate the higher planes. One can never find the answer as to why some must do such. It can never be taught. It is given.

on Friday, August 19th, Ron Massey said

Dear Walter,
Good to see you back on absolute arts , that you're alive and kicking and hopefully in good health.?... The blogs seem to be where any worth -while conversation is taking place recently, for some reason the forums have degenerated into a mutual congratulations chat -club.
I read your blog tonight.As you know, I enjoy your accounts of your travels to these wide open spaces of the U.S... and I envied you a little being able to do it.. with the finest of excuses..(delivering a painting! ) , having just returned myself from a great 4½ months in the spaces of Australia, and feeling now rather cramped back here in Holland and what barely passes as a summer.
I don't know how much deliberation there was in your saying.."Selling one’s art seems to be a huge topic on the Absolutearts forum. " .. It has indeed become almost obsessive, ad nausea and I dont know if people realise how this obsession can erode creative energy.
Your blog suddenly conjured up the image of the seemingly long- lost motiveless balanced meditative creator,...in Altimira , New Mexico,or the Kimberly Ranges of Australia, so called primitives, tens of centuries removed from us ,their work still, so often like a breath of fresh air to behold in our present neurotic world.

on Friday, August 19th, Brad Michael Moore said

Walt, I like to imagine that those pictographs I've seen in New Mexico, in the Tsankawi portion of the Bandelier National Monument, are a kind of house address and bidding... "I live here, and these are my family and children... We are blessed by, and pray to Mother Nature (or their God and Gods), to give our thanks for bountiful seasons granted us in the past. We continue our prayers for future bountiful seasons to feed our family."

on Friday, August 19th, Shirley Babashoff said

I like this blog too. There is a sense of calmness behind it.
I do agree with you Walter, we are not too different from our oldest brothers, we are very close to them indeed.
And it is a nice feeling, it gives to our life a more balanced natural dimension.
Shirley Babashoff

on Friday, August 19th, Olga Dmitrenko said

Walter! I enjoyed your notes and pictures very much and found your thoughts very logical. Are you going to start series of works inuced by this?