The Art of Seminole Canyon

As far as the eye could see, there was almost no break in the horizon from trees or hills.  The road just went on and disappeared over the earth’s curve.  My father and I watched as vultures circled over us as we got out of the car at Seminole Canyon National Park. 

Seminole Canyon is located in west Texas, only a few minutes from the Pecos River and the Mexican border.  It’s located in the middle of the Chihuahua desert.  You really get a good idea of why the root word of deserted is desert when you look out over this wide expanse of hardly anything more than a shrub for miles.

But this isn’t what my dad and I had come to see.  Seminole Canyon is home to some of the oldest pieces of art in the world, Neolithic Cave Paintings.  The wall art in these caves have been estimated at or around the 9^th century BCE, roughly 12,000 years old. 

Many were depictions of wild animals like deer, panthers, squirrels and even a centipede.  There were also many images of people in shamanistic garb captured by the artists and preserved on these canyon walls.

One of these shaman is commonly called The White Shaman as he is seen as a tall human figure wearing a long white cloak wrapped around his whole body.  This is one of two figures that were given huge 3D model replicas by modern artists.  The model of the White Shaman has a large slit from the top of his chest to the ground and is oriented to the raising and setting sun on the spring and fall equinox.  On those days, the sun shines straight through the opening for a truly magical moment.

The other image immortalized by an artist sits outside the canyon’s visitor center.  He is called the Maker of Peace. He’s seen draped in a deer skin mantle and holding hunting tools and a staff, and perched on his staff is large black raven.  His arms are spread wide to embrace the whole land, and his head is that of a deer with antlers, the most important animal to these ancient people.

It really amazes me how across the world, gods and spirits that are associated with hunting and wild animals have antlers or horns on human bodies.  The Hindus have Pashupati, the Celts in Gaul worshipped Cernunnos, the Saxons believed in Hern the Hunter, and now here we see an ancient spirit of the hunt with the same features.

My father and I left the canyons and the ancient rock shelters and went back to our tents. Seeing art that was as old as it was amazingly beautiful was a profound experience.

It is sad that the art is now fading quickly.  The construction of damns nearby has changed the climate and the paintings are already beginning to fade.  Luckily, I was able to take lots of pictures and will be able to admire them forever there as the people of Seminole Canyon would have wanted us to.

Trip to NYC

My mom, sister and I recently made our first trip to the Big Apple. The three of us went for the main purpose of going to actual Broadway productions. We had seen the traveling performers before, but we were in for a whole new game in NYC.

We got up early the morning of our flight and flew from Austin to Dallas to Newark. When we arrived we took a taxi shuttle to the Marriott hotel on Time Square. After enduring a three hour ride that only covered 17 miles, I will never complain about Austin traffic again. We were incredibly lucky to get a room on the 20th floor over looking the famous ball drop.

After a quick change we dropped back down to street level to get in line for the first of our shows, The Addams Family. Bebe Neuworth played Morticia while Gomez was acted out by Nathan Lane.

The two together were positively hysterical. “With the shirt cut all the way down to Venezuela,” Morticia was as gorgeous as she was side-splittingly funny. Gomez would do his fantastic Spanish accent leaving me roaring.

The next day, Katie and I roamed the streets of Manhattan looking for cool shops and venders. There seems to be an African immigrant selling something about every 30 paces.

My mom and I forced Katie to take pictures with the infamous Naked Cowboy of Time Square. He’s actually even funnier in person believe it or not. The guy really embodies the spirit of NYC in that he’s doing his thing and nobody had better get in his way.

Later in the day we saw a non-musical play called Lend Me a Tenor. There were a lot of big name actors in this one not the least of which is Tony Shaloub of the TV series Monk. The humor of this play made the Addams Family seem, well, Dead.

Every second was spent laughing at Shaloub spitting wax fruit into the audience or Antony laPaglia trying to sound like an Italian opera singer.

The last show of the trip was called Promises Promises. I’ll have to say in wasn’t my favorite. It’s a big 60’s period piece and wasn’t written with musicals in mind. The leading actress was the ever so famous Kristen Chenoweth. She was very pretty and can sing like no other. The play’s choreography blew me away and really saved the show.

On our last day, we spent the entire time riding on the top of a double-decker bus snapping as many pictures as we could of Little Italy, Wall Street, Empire State building and countless more.

The last major adventure of the trip was trying to get home. The flight had been canceled and we couldn’t seem to get onto another plane. Luckily an agent named, and I’m not making this up, Athena truly came to our rescue and got us on a flight all together and really saved the day.
We arrived back in Austin around 12:30 AM very tired and totally taken aback by what an adventure we had had in just three days. I know for sure that NYC has not seen the last of us.