A Visual Survey of Twenty Tinajas, completed while I was participating in the Land Arts of the American West program, draws directly on my previous studies in biology, with a survey of the life contained within pools of water in the desert. These pools, or tinajas, are entirely dependent on rainfall and become isolated worlds for the organisms that occupy them. The organisms cannot move from one to the next, and when rain ceases to fall, they die. The certainty of each pools’ evaporation is evident throughout the day, as the borders shrink and water turns into mud. Some pools have more biological diversity than others, and some are so shallow that life has ceased to exist. In my prints, the variation from pool to pool becomes apparent, as many pools are teeming with colorful creatures while a few have only one or no visible organisms at all. As the water level falls, the topography separates larger pools into several smaller ones, and the creatures in each one become discrete populations. These homes are transient and almost tragic. I think about people and of our own watery world floating in the desert of space. With our resources dwindling, our own metaphorical borders are closing in around us. The rain comes and replenishes the tinajas, but I wonder what rainfall will come to save us.
Figure 01. 37º13’44″N, 109º57’44″W, 1901M
2006, etching, linocut, collage, 8″ x 8″
Figure 02. 37º13’44″N, 109º57’45″W, 1901M
2006, etching, linocut, collage, 8″ x 8″
Figure 03. 37º13’44″N, 109º57’45″W, 1901M
2006, etching, linocut, collage, 8″ x 8″
Figure 04. 37º13’43″N, 109º57’45″W, 1901M
2006, etching, linocut, collage, 8″ x 8″
Figure 05. 37º13’41″N, 109º57’45″W, 1904M
2006, etching, linocut, collage, 8″ x 8″
Figure 06. 37º13’41″N, 109º57’44″W, 1901M
2006, etching, linocut, collage, 8″ x 8″
Figure 07. 37º13’44″N, 109º57’43″W, 1903M
2006, etching, linocut, collage, 8″ x 8″
Figure 08. 37º13’32″N, 109º57’38″W, 1907M
2006, etching, linocut, collage, 8″ x 8″
Figure 09. 37º13’32″N, 109º57’38″W, 1907M
2006, etching, linocut, collage, 8″ x 8″
Figure 10. 37º13’30″N, 109º57’38″W, 1896M
2006, etching, linocut, collage, 8″ x 8″
Figure 11. 37º13’16″N, 109º57’32″W, 1890M
2006, etching, linocut, collage, 8″ x 8″
Figure 12. 37º13’16″N, 109º57’32″W, 1890M
2006, etching, linocut, collage, 8″ x 8″
Figure 13. 37º13’16″N, 109º57’32″W, 1890M
2006, etching, linocut, collage, 8″ x 8″
Figure 14. 37º13’16″N, 109º57’32″W, 1890M
2006, etching, linocut, collage, 8″ x 8″
Figure 15. 37º13’16″N, 109º57’32″W, 1890M
2006, etching, linocut, collage, 8″ x 8″
Figure 16. 37º13’16″N, 109º57’32″W, 1890M
2006, etching, linocut, collage, 8″ x 8″
Figure 17. 37º13’16″N, 109º57’32″W, 1890M
2006, etching, linocut, collage, 8″ x 8″
Figure 18. 37º13’16″N, 109º57’32″W, 1890M
2006, etching, linocut, collage, 8″ x 8″
Figure 19. 37º13’16″N, 109º57’32″W, 1890M
2006, etching, linocut, collage, 8″ x 8″
Figure 20. 37º13’16″N, 109º57’21″W, 1892M
2006, etching, linocut, collage, 8″ x 8″