CORN MESA

$2 ,500.00

18″ X 24″ CORN MESA. Acrylic on masonite board. Corn Mesa, or Dowa Yalanne, as it is known to the Zuni people. The mountain was settled before the European contact. Known as “house of the gods”. Corn Mesa is sacred to the Zuni people. This steep high plateau was a place of refuge from Spanish conquistadores. Of highly religous significance to the Zuni tribe, the mesa is known to be a place for shrines and religious ceremonies and is off limits to outsiders.

18″ X 24″ CORN MESA. Acrylic on masonite board. The shapes and contours of Corn Mesa, or Corn Mountain, on the Zuni Indian reservation, invite the artist to find his own interpretation of the mesa’s natural beauty. Here, yellow ochre waves of sagebrush morph into red sandstone washes made up of red sand rich in iron oxide, giving the base of the mountain a rust-colored tint. Oxide green shrubs dot the landscape, following then contours of the ground. The red rock of the mesa is Entrada Sandstone, with white bands. The mesa’s white Zuni sandstone is used as baking stones for ‘hewe’, a paper thin corn bread used for special occasions. Meanwhile, as it is so common in New Mexico, the clouds are putting on a show of their own, as mesas in the background look on.