by another hand print – part 2
The story about the hand print on the snowblower keeps getting more interesting. If you have not already read that post and the comments especially from Richard and my reply, may I suggest doing so, then come back here.
This morning our daughter Anita (Richard’s partner) emailed me some photos that she took of the other side of the snowblower (above left) as well as one of the side I already posted (above right). Here is what she wrote (slightly edited to fit my photo layout):
Since you missed them when you photographed the hand print, here are the other decorations on the Park City snowblower, replicating petroglyphs like the ones we saw in Moab, which Richard says are all over the red rock mesas of eastern Utah.
I particularly like the turtle and the bison. The bison, below, and the above right photo are the side of the chute that you photographed (both sides have a hand print), and it’s definitely harder to make out the drawings with all the rust on that side. Not graffiti, either – Richard said someone would have decorated the chute intentionally when it was first put into operation. Pretty cool.
My response in part:
I had not realized that Richard was not joking when he wrote about them on my blog. Are the images ‘painted’ (pictographic), or scratched or carved deeply into the metal (petroglyphic)? I’m sorry I missed them. I love the Kokopelli figure!
Again, Anita, in part:
They are painted rather than carved. They are copies of petroglyphs, and yes, the figure is similar to the one called Kokopelli that is so popular in Moab and other areas.
Richard had to chuckle when he heard you thought he was joking! But then you hadn’t seen the more clearly painted side of the snowblower chute. Neither had I, and it’s been sitting there for a year.
What a story, eh! And goes to show that even my eagle eyes and camera don’t always see everything! Thanks for sharing these photos and stories, Anita and Richard, and I hope you hang on to these images.
June 20, 2011 in Neat stuff, Rock Art & Archaeology by Marja-Leena
That’s very nice. I’ll bet the mystery artist hoped that one day someone would take the kind of notice you and your family have. His work is a credit to human creativity.
Was just on my way over to your place, Marja-Leena, to wish you a very Happy Solstice when I found your comment on my place. So Prost! I’ll catch up with this interesting sounding handprint business forthwith.
You’re welcome! As for hanging on to the images, a restored machine would naturally not include a pitted, rusty surface, so you’re right, a new paint job will threaten the paintings at some point. But thanks to you spotting that hand print, I’ll enjoy our very own “petroglyphs” for as long as the blower remains there, and stop seeing it as something of an eyesore to be tucked away behind the barn. And as with your image of the handprint, there’s often more meaning to be found in a photo than the original subject, so I’ll be happy with your photos, and maybe I’ll take a few more of my own when the restoration is about to begin.
Susan, thanks, yet a part of me wonders about all this ‘copying’ of the aboriginal cultures’ work and making it their own. In a way, I’m guilty too, when I photograph them. Kokopelli for instance has become incredibly overused and commercialized in the southwest US.
Rouchswalwe, thanks for the lovely Solstice wishes. I’ve been too busy to do mine here, ’twill be late…
Anita, yes, do take lots of photos! Say, maybe that chute could be cut off and installed in your garden, and Richard could build a new plain chute as part of the restoration? Half-kidding here….
I wondered if the images were painted by someone who was not totally enamoured of the official mascots for the Winter Olympics, and in ‘protest’ provided more traditional ones. The mascots used are rather Disneyfied versions of what was seen to be Native American animals: http://www.utah.com/olympics/emblem_mascots.htm
Hah. Now that’s a trickster sort of thing–fooling Marja-Leena’s eye!
Olga, that’s an interesting thought – protest art! The examples you linked to are quite awful. Even at the Vancouver Olympics, there were complaints about the incorrect representation of the Inuit inuksuk that was chosen as mascot.
Marly, trickster tricked me!
Can’t think of a better use for a snow-blower.
Joe, heheehee, that hits right on the mark!