The extraordinary patience of things!
—Robinson Jeffers
In particular I will mention Rock Varnish.
Carving, hammering, abrading — the making of petroglyphs — interacts with layers of being and becoming by cutting through. To reveal. From within and through a thin “patina” layer the rock-art design motif emerges.
This rock varnish, compounded by dust or clay adhering to stone, accumulates and concentrates manganese and iron. The characteristic rich blacks, browns, reds of exposed basalt. Cyanobacteria find a home here as do a variety of micro-fungi. Tiny lichen often complicate this living surface. A microcosm of Gaia.
Time stands still having no place else to go, rather here, deposited, metallic sheen glistening in the slow eye of duration.
The English words rock and varnish yearn to grasp this living changing realm. Yet the petroglyph as action, as image, transforms our understanding of formation. The inspirited expanse of the matrix. Earth matter. A marked language decipherable with guess and luck in the context of changing light and weathers. Allowing for a certain grace of presence.
CODA
As for us:
We must uncenter our minds from ourselves;
We must unhumanize our views a little, and become confident
As the rock and ocean that we were made from.
—Robinson Jeffers, Carmel Point
Photos: Douglas Beauchamp, Oregon's Northern Great Basin; High Lakes region
