A Gathering of Bears

I’ve long been fascinated by bears, those large lunky denizens of zoos I used to watch with admiration and fear. I bought a figurine of one in Estes Park as a child, a figure I kept with me into my adulthood. Then I discovered bear paw prints and bears in a panel of petroglyphs on the south-facing escarpment of Spring Mesa west of Montrose, Colorado. They thrilled me. The panel has been dubbed The Three Bears since three carvings of bears climbing trees appear there. The symbol is still current in the traditional bear dance of the Utes who used to spend time each year in the valley. Perhaps they held their annual vernal equinox dance there. 

Recently another Ute bear petroglyph image has captured my imagination, one from the Gunnison River some miles north east of the three bears. This bear looks ferocious to me. I painted it several times and have now used it in a lino-block for printing. This past week I printed. My artist friend Sue suggested I try printing on different kinds of art papers to see what would happen. So I printed on roadmaps, hand made papers, papers with seeds or leaves or strings embedded in them. I hd fun with my brayer, baren and tiny Speedball press. And I’m pleased with the results.

Some of these prints will be shown at the Colorado Mountain Art Gallery in Georgetown. Going on a color drive into the mountains soon? Stop by the gallery and see all the additional colors there as well. Oh, the food’s good up there, too.

Denver, 2014