2016 Artist Dennis Martinez

Dennis Martinez's visual experience with the monument is two-fold. He and a few students were invited to temporarily install a rock installation in Grand Wash. During this venture he was able to visualize a number of vistas and rock formations on the west side of the park. He wasn’t able to take any photos of the landscape but instead made a visual memory of each location he stopped. He says "It was a wonderful experience to share with my Installation Art students". They noted a similarity in their rock sculpture to Robert Smithson’s “Spiral Jetty” that was constructed from rock and natural materials in Utah’s Great Salt Lake in the early 1970s.

When he returned to Parashant a few months later as part of his acceptance to the park’s Artist in Residence program, he made it a point to revisit a number of the locations he particularly enjoyed, especially “Red Pockets.” He photographed various locations from start to finish. He particularly focused on areas that became visual interpretations of human figures and faces, as well as animal personifications. He sais "It was fun to encounter a number of wild rabbits and quail with their young scurrying across the roadways". One view he happened upon was a piece he titled “Mid-Day Oasis”. The lighting, colors and feeling were perfect.

The paintings are all done in an expressive manner to note the physical, spiritual and emotional play on nature and how it brings us all back to a time from our own life history as well as that of all mankind.