LARRY BLACKWOOD

Blue Mesa #3
Petrified Forest N.P., Arizona
2021

Blue Mesa #2
Petrified Forest N.P., Arizona
2021

That the Blue Mesa area was still damp from recent rain really deepened and enhanced the colors. The low morning light helped as well I think.

Blue Mesa #1
Petrified Forest N.P., Arizona
2021

This area of the Petrified Forest National Park is called Blue Mesa, but there is obviously a lot more going on there colorwise besides blue. In fact the closest color I even saw to blue was a kind of blueish steel gray. Shades of mauve seemed much more prevalent. Adjacent to and north of Petrified Forest National Park is the Painted Desert National Park. Despite the implication in color in the name Painted Desert, I found the colors in Petrified Forest National Park to be much more varied and interesting.

I took a hike through the Blue Mesa area and was moved not only by the colors (often lovely subtle pastel shades) but also by the forms, shapes and shadows I encountered, which I feel are best expressed in black and white. So this series of images will be partly color images and partly black and white.

Roadside Attractions #6
Holbrook, Arizona
2021

This guy didn’t seem to give a bloody fig about my cultural or epochic appropriation discussions.

Roadside Attractions #5
Holbrook, Arizona
2021

If yesterday’s post was an example of cultural appropriation, I’m not sure what to call this–perhaps epochic appropriation?

Cultural Appropriation (Roadside Attractions #4)
Holbrook, Arizona
2021

Hopi-inspired designs on plains Indian teepees just seems odd to me.

Catching Some Rays (Roadside Attractions #3)
Holbrook, Arizona
2021

Roadside Attractions #2
Holbrook, Arizona
2021

Hard times for dinosaurs–and their handlers.

Roadside Attractions #1
Holbrook, Arizona
2021

Bare Tree #80
Bighorn Canyon, Wyoming
2021

Live fast, die young, leave a good-looking corpse. (That’s live fast in arboreal terms. This tree was actually quite old compared to humans when it succumbed.)