1993i_Landscape_Monuments_Turner.txt

Division 2. Body. Section A: Milestones. Section B: Connections. Section C: Work.
Owner:        Sara Ellyn Nelson
Chapter V. Civilization
View:         270 degrees
Type:         Landscape 
Location:     Landscape Monuments
Perspective:  9
Season:       Spring
Family:       Morning Prayer
Scales:       12
Time:         Morning
Concept:      Milestones
Interval:     5 Millennium of Building

This painting summarizes the milestones of civilization overlain on a natural
scene, comparing man's real but transient accomplishments to God's real,
tangible and timeless creations.  There are nine different landscapes,
including my birth place and where Marti lived the six years before we were
married.  Clockwise from the bottom left these landscapes include (1) some
eroded Jurassic Navajo aeolian sand dunes on the trail along the West Rim of
Zion Canyon; (2) Philmont Scout Ranch from Mount Phillips in northern New
Mexico; (3) mountains at the mouth of Zion Canyon; (4) formations on Kolob
Plateau from the trail along the West Rim of Zion Canyon; (5) Zion Canyon from
the top of Angels Landing; (6) a 2,000 year old Bristlecone Pine Tree near the
rangers cabin at Cedar Breaks, which, like Jesus Christ, is alive; (7) Cedar
Valley, where Howard Nelson's farm is as seen from Cedar Mountain up Right
Hand Canyon; (8) Horsetooth Reservoir from Horsetooth Mountain overlooking Ft.
Collins, where Marti went to high school and college; and (9) Cedar Breaks
National Monument.  Monuments or milestones in the history of man on earth
include: the Egyptian Pyramids (~2600 B.C.); Meso American Olmec Pyramids
(~1000 B.C.); the Parthenon (500 B.C.); Great Wall of China (~250 B.C.);
Herod's Temple (~25 B.C.); St. Peters Basilica (325); the Taj Mahal (1650);
Big Ben (1859); the Eiffel Tower (1889); New York (1980's) (note this painting
was completed years before a jet trail ran through buildings on the New York
skyline on 911); and Biosphere II (1991).  The star burst design happens to be
repeated in the Biosphere.  Man's creations come out of the earth and may be
required to enclose living things if we do not control the pollutions to the
firmament above and the firmament beneath.  The tree itself is a symbol of
longevity, or nature's resiliency.  At the base of the tree is the guitar case
and Sara, whose painting this is, kneeling in morning prayer.  Prayer is one
of the real milestones of modern life, providing a lasting connection to daily
work.  In the same way we need to be ready to start building artificial
biospheres to save endangered life, we need to be ready to gather to the
Stakes of Zion to weather the spiritual pollutions of our day.  The jet trail
continues across the western sky, connecting the chapter on Civilization to the
chapters on Mankind and Living.  The textures, hues and paint itself come
together very nicely.  Detail evaluation of the mountains shows strong, simple
brush strokes.  at a distance these strokes blend into a lovely desert
landscape.