Week 39: Last week of my artist residency
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, Colorado
Hi friends! Hi fam! This was the last full week of my artist residency at Canyons of the Ancients National Monument (CANM) — and what a week it was!
Here are some of the highlights:
Field Day with CANM’s Archaeologist
On Tuesday we had a field day with CANM’s sole Archeologist, Vince MacMillan. CANM encompasses 174,000 acres and the number of cultural sites on the monument is estimated to be around 30,000. That seems like a ton of work for one person to manage! I felt so lucky that we got to go out in the field with him and I learned so much on our backcountry hike.
Note: Vince asked that I not share the location of this site and all metadata has been removed.
We hiked for 8.5 miles on the day — way out of the frame of this photo — and I have new respect for what it must have been like hiking across the Great Sage Plain. Sage is that grayish shrub that you see in the foreground, and the mass towards the middle of the photo. It smells so good — but it’s really hard work hiking through it! Some of the sage was taller than me — and I’m almost 5’6.
Our first glimpse of the cultural site made was pretty amazing — since the Ancient Puebloan people used the same rocks that are found in the landscape it really blends in, but then once you see it it’s like whoa!
I tried to imagine what it must have been like for the people who lived here. I had read many theories about why the ancients built these towers, and when I asked Vince about it he said they were to convey a presence — not for lookouts or defense. It’s a marker saying “we are here”.
It’s hard to imagine that this tower has been standing for 800 years. And that it was built without metal tools — I sure couldn’t do it!
We ate our lunch near the tower and then I did a super quick sketch since we needed to head back soon:
I furiously scribbled notes in my sketchbook too — here’s a bit of what I wrote:
CANM has the highest concentration of archeological sites in the US by definition
There are 9,100 documented sites within the monument (some remain buried)
That’s 110 sites per square mile
It’s also one of the largest prehistoric cemeteries in the world
Vince works with 83 tribal members and 26 different tribes
The area averages 13” of rain each year but the wind deposited soils are so deep that ancient people were able to do dryland farming. I can tell you that the soil was super soft to walk on, too. Vince said it was due to the recent snow.
They ate a diverse variety of plants — 23 plants on average were found in their poop! Whoa! We’re both vegan/whole-foods plant based and we don’t get that much diversity in our diet most of the time — even though we try!
What an awesome, unforgettable day!
Scenes from the Residence
The house where we parked at had the most amazing views and cool plants, so of course I had to do some nature journaling about them — here’s a video if you’d like to come on a backyard sketch walk with me:
I’m feeling so grateful that I got to call this special place home for a while. Every night I’d run out to watch the sunset, and each one seemed better than the last.
Nature Journaling Workshop
On Saturday I gave my second public outreach program — a 2 hour nature journaling workshop. Participants had to register for the workshop and it was capped at 15 — but I think more showed up as it was mentioned on a local radio station. Some came from as far away as Durango, CO.
It was so fun getting to share my love of nature journaling at this beautiful place — and the best part was seeing people get excited and think “hey, I can do this too”!
It was a glorious spring day so we got to have it outside. I shared some nature journaling tips and techniques and then we went off to journal:
I love how we all were sketching at the same location, yet we each noticed different things.
Special thanks to Ranger Amala and her daughter Gigi for helping me get set up for the workshop. Gigi helped me fill water brushes, and Ranger Amala brought two teaching kits of artifacts that were previously looted from the monument and then returned under a voluntary program. It really added something special to get to sketch these ancient artifacts, including pottery shards and bone awls.
Heirloom Beans
Last but not least, thinking about the Ancient Puebloans and their diverse diet made me want to stop hoarding saving the heirloom beans from Rancho Gordo that my friend Sally gave me when we visited her back in January — hi Sally!
I had to give a shoutout to their Christmas Lima Beans — oh wow, just so darn good! Jason doesn’t even like lima beans and he gobbled them up. Highly recommend!
That’s a wrap for this week!
Next week we’ll be heading off to disperse camp at CANM— and I’ll be painting up a storm.
See you then! — Lisa, Jason and Walter-the-Van
I hope you saved the beans' bag - so cool!
The humble lima
Is as sublime a
Bean as any;
I've had many.