Las Piedras del Cielo

Gregg Chadwick
Las Piedras del Cielo
16"x20" oil on linen 2010

"From the top they could make out, apart from the canyon, some small boulders which seemed to be as high as a man. Those who went down and who reached them swore that they were taller than the great tower of Seville."
- Pedro de Casteneda, notes from the Coronado Expedition

"I have heard rumors of visitors who were disappointed. The same people will be disappointed at the Day of Judgment. In fact, the Grand Canyon is a sort of landscape Day of Judgment. It is not a show place, a beauty spot, but a revelation"
- J. B. Priestley

My latest paintings gather thoughts and images of time, history and place. On a day when a federal judge blocks the imposition of a biased law, I post my painting in solidarity with the myriad cultures that call this land home. For the Hopi it is a sacred place called Ongtupqa. Spanish settlers described the Gran Cañón. Many speak of the Grand Canyon as if contemporary residents were the first to feel the power of its great beauty. But the stones themselves seem to speak of the history of time.

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