Time at Bandelier National Monument
September 14th of 2015 began for me a month long stay at Bandelier National Monument as the artist-in-residence. Having this opportunity to live in one of my favorite places was truly a dream come true. To be in Frijoles Canyon, spending my days and nights, dawns and sunsets there, gave me the time to observe more closely the subtler workings, and quieter beauty, which Bandelier offers to all its visitors. For me, as both poet and visual artist, these subtleties experienced at Bandelier, from the rock formations and ruins, to the trees and animals, will no doubt give me continued inspiration for my art.
Looking back on my residency, I became aware of something invisible that I feel is one of the most important personal discoveries I made while at Bandelier: It is the sense of time, and our place in it. Visitors come first—I certainly did— to see the ruins of the “Anasazi,” now called the Ancestral Puebloans. The first thing most of us visitors do is to take the Main Loop Trail up to the cave dwellings, called cavates. Before climbing up we walk past the large Kiva and through Tyuonyi, (Qu-weh-nee), the circular pueblo ruins in Frijoles Canyon nearest the perpetually flowing river, more like a healthy creek, the Rito de los Frijoles.
It is this romance of the canyon, its round sunken kivas and dark cavates that initially ignite our imaginations. Who were the people that lived here in this isolated canyon almost 600 years ago? The rooms are so small, the cave dwellings so dark, what was it like for them here then? How did they live, and survive in this isolated place? Why did they come here in the first place? And how did they even discover this isolated canyon tucked deeply between steep cliffs? Why did they leave and where did they go?
Looking back on my residency, I became aware of something invisible that I feel is one of the most important personal discoveries I made while at Bandelier: It is the sense of time, and our place in it. Visitors come first—I certainly did— to see the ruins of the “Anasazi,” now called the Ancestral Puebloans. The first thing most of us visitors do is to take the Main Loop Trail up to the cave dwellings, called cavates. Before climbing up we walk past the large Kiva and through Tyuonyi, (Qu-weh-nee), the circular pueblo ruins in Frijoles Canyon nearest the perpetually flowing river, more like a healthy creek, the Rito de los Frijoles.
It is this romance of the canyon, its round sunken kivas and dark cavates that initially ignite our imaginations. Who were the people that lived here in this isolated canyon almost 600 years ago? The rooms are so small, the cave dwellings so dark, what was it like for them here then? How did they live, and survive in this isolated place? Why did they come here in the first place? And how did they even discover this isolated canyon tucked deeply between steep cliffs? Why did they leave and where did they go?
