I visited The City of Rocks in New Mexico soon after I returned to America as a pseudo refugee following the May 1998 riots in Jakarta and, as a result, the closing of the international school at which I taught for many years. In contrast to the tumult I had just experienced, the giant rocks towering over me proclaimed their endurance. I used deep, earthy tones to reflect the fortitude of the rocks in the first tryptich. In the second tryptich, I expressed my own turbulant feelings and thoughts as I stood amid the rocks. The painting erupts in color amidst mysterious figures emerging from the tuff.
© 1999
"Over a million years ago a nearby volcano erupted tiny particles of very hot rock. Instead of rising into the air they flowed from the lip of the volcano. When the flow came to rest the particles fused together to form the solid rock that you see here, known technically as “welled tuff.” Doubtless, the tuff was covered later by other volcanic material, but erosion acting through many thousand of years uncovered the tuff and attacked it. Because of its structure and composition this rock scales off on the exposed surface. Wind and water have carried off the resulting debris, leaving these rounded monumental forms."
—sign posted at the City of Rocks, New Mexico, USA
