Dwelling Place

Oil on 30×40 Gallery-Wrapped Canvas, Original Fine Art Oil Painting

This is part of a series of paintings focused on a trip we took to Colorado. The painting was selected to show in the 48th Juried Exhibition at the Lyndon House Arts Center. The show ran from March 2 – May 6, 2023. The show was curated by Maria Elena Ortiz, Curator at The Modern in Fort Worth, Texas.

Dwelling Place is a depiction of the Manitou Cliff Dwellings in Colorado. This fascinating architecture has 40 rooms and was once home to the Taos Pueblo Native American tribe of New Mexico. The painting explores the juxtaposition of how what was once a dwelling place to many families of a tribe now serves as a tourist spot. Similarly, The soft warm colors of reds, oranges, and yellows contrast with the jagged and petrous rocks. The various layers of rock signify the length of time the cliff dwellings have remained, which in and of itself is contradicting as the cliff dwellings were originally located near McElmo Canyon near Mesa Verde before being transported to Manitou Springs in 1907. The cliff dwellings were moved to preserve and protect the Ancestral Puebloan architecture from looters and relic pot-hunters.