Impressions--Grand Canyon

            My final piece for Voyage Art Textiles 2014 is titled “Impressions--Grand Canyon”.  We have all seen photographs of the Grand Canyon showing it in every season and in all weather.  However, I have never seen a photograph that really captures the depth, immensity and amazing color of the Grand Canyon.  I believe that is a virtually impossible task.

 

            The Grand Canyon is located in Northern Arizona and is 277 miles (446 km) long, up to 18 miles (29 km) wide and attains a depth of over a mile (6,000 feet or 1,800 meters).  Nearly two billion years of Earth’s geological history have been exposed as the Colorado River and its tributaries cut their channels through layer after layer of rock while the Colorado Plateau was uplifted.  Recent evidence suggests that the Colorado River established its course through the canyon at least 17 million years ago.  Since that time, the Colorado River continued to erode and form the canyon to its present-day configuration.

Rather than attempting to make yet another “photograph” or “painting” of the Grand Canyon, I decided to record my impressions of the Canyon.  When I saw the Grand Canyon for the first time, I was immediately struck by the color and the layers upon layers of color in the rocks.  The blue of the sky and the glitter of the Colorado River far below constantly compete with the colors of the rocks and vegetation.  The sigh of the ever-constant wind and the distant screeching of hawks and eagles intensify the “surreality” of the Grand Canyon's vistas. 

I returned to one of my favorite processes, intuitive piecing, to construct the Grand Canyon Quilt which I thought would give it a structured feeling without losing the feeling of constant change and motion that continue to shape the Grand Canyon.  

 

Frances Murphy