Historic Art in the Painted Desert Inn

Trading Room Glass Art Panels

Trading Room Glass Art © 2010 Bo Mackison

During the rehabbing of the Painted Desert Inn in the 1930s under the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the architect, Lyle Bennett, was in charge of the Painted Desert Inn project. Though Bennett joined the park service as a ranger, his expertise about the fine arts (he had a degree in fine arts) made him sought after for many Park Service architectural projects. Under his guidance, the CCC crew designed and built tables and chairs based on Native American designs. Two CCC workers hand-painted these lovely skylights in the Trading Room with designs based on prehistoric art found in Southwestern archeological sites. Even the concrete floors were painted with patterns based on Navajo blankets.

Painted Desert Inn Mural by Fred Kapotie

Mural by Fred Kapotie © 2010 Bo Mackison

In 1947, the Painted Desert Inn changed ownership and was purchased by the Fred Harvey Company. The company placed their architect, Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter, in charge of again renovating and repairing the buildings. She added a new color scheme to harmonize with the Inn’s surroundings, and also hired Fred Kobotie, a famous Hopi artist, to paint blanket sized murals on the walls of the diningroom and lunchroom. Kapotie’s murals depicted his culture in these paintings and provide glimpses into Hopi culture. Included subjects were the Buffalo Dance, a journey to a sacred place, spring planting time, and a sun face. The sun face also became the logo of the Fred Harvey Company.

Even though the Painted Desert and the Painted Desert Inn (Museum) are in the Petrified Forest National Park, I haven’t posted any photographs of the actual prehistoric wood yet. I promise, the next posts will contain the namesakes of the National Park.

Harsh, But Beautiful – Painted Desert

Harsh Beauty in the Painted Desert

Harsh Beauty of the Painted Desert © 2010 Bo Mackison

A portion of the Painted Desert is located within the boundaries of Petrified Forest National Park located near the eastern border of Arizona. The  Painted Desert gets its name from the amazing, varied colors of rock – reds, oranges, pinks, lavenders, grays. This photograph was taken in October, and rain had recently passed through the region. The badlands I remembered from an earlier August visit were no longer brown and lifeless, but popping with a multitude of green plants and yellow flowers.

View from Painted Desert Inn

Painted Desert © 2010 Bo Mackison

The area is covered by the geological Chinle formation which is a soft layer of earth consisting mainly of mud, sandstone, and volcanic ash. The texture of the soft rock is easily eroded and staining by water flows and mineral deposits leaves remarkable colors.

Painted Desert VII

Painted Desert VII © 2010 Bo Mackison

This is a designated wilderness area — hiking only a few hundred yards away from the main road provides for feelings of both exhilaration and desolation.

Painted Desert Inn

Painted Desert Inn and Autumn Blossoms

Autumn Blossoms, Painted Desert Inn © 2010 Bo Mackison

On our swing through some of the Southwestern National Parks in October, we stopped at the Petrified Forest National Park in the east central region of Arizona. This park also includes the Painted Desert and this building, the Painted Desert Inn Museum. The architectural style of the inn was influenced by Pueblo Indian dwellings and Early Spanish architecture. It was built to harmonize with its surroundings and blends well with the surrounding Painted Desert.

Garden at the Painted Desert Inn II

Desert Garden and Painted Desert Inn © 2010 Bo Mackison

The original inn was built in the 1920s, mostly of available stone and petrified rocks and the builders used a mud mortar to hold the structure together. It was a trading post and had a lunch counter, but it had no water or electricity. The Park Service purchased the building in 1936 and used WPA funds and Civilian Conservation Corps labor to essentially rebuild the entire structure.

In the late 1930s, National Park Service architect Lyle Bennett redesigned the building, utilizing the Pueblo Revival Style. The Painted Desert Inn re-opened for business on July 4, 1940 and was a stop on the Historic Route 66. (Petrified Forest National Park is the only national park that has a portion of the Historic Route 66 within its boundaries.) The inn’s life as an oasis in the middle of the desert lasted only a couple of years, and ended with the beginning of World War II. Traveling was greatly curtailed and the inn closed in 1942.

Not to be ignored for long, the Inn again opened and was operated from 1947 through 1963 by the Fred Harvey Company, a company who was a concessionaire in many of the Western National Parks. Then, after sitting unused for a dozen years, the building was scheduled for demolition in 1975. However a public outpouring of concern for the historic building convinced the Park Service to save the Painted Desert Inn. It opened in 1976 as a museum and bookstore on a limited basis.

Painted Desert Inn, National Historic Landmark

Painted Desert Inn, National Historic Landmark © 2010 Bo Mackison

It again underwent extensive repair in 2004-06 and then reopened as the museum and bookstore now pictured. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places and is also a National Historic Landmark.

The building is a stunning example of architecture, and has a history well worth exploring. There are exhibits inside the Inn which shed light on its fascinating history. A walk around the entire structure and through its many rooms reveals small architectural gems such as arched doorways and windows, hand crafted metal lamps, and an intriguing wooden beam support system in the ceilings.

In the next posts, I’ll feature the interior of the Painted Desert Inn, so lovingly and meticulously restored, and filled with art and intricate design features, and also photographs of the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest landscapes.

An Alphabet in Four Parts – Finale

In a Blue Fog

In a Blue Fog © 2010 Bo Mackison

Concluding with the last installment of my alphabetical musings for the changing of the year:

U is for UNDERWEAR.

UNDERWEAR. As in SEMPER UBI SUB UBI as in SENSE OF HUMOR. Keeping a sense of humor in my back pocket is a talent well worth cultivating. Though crying can make me feel better, laughing is much more fun. And I am learning that emotions create your reality. Smiling eventually makes you feel better. Crying? Not so much. (If you are unfamiliar with Latin, the above phrase can be [questionably] translated “always where under where.” Many generations of high school freshman Latin student have found that wildly amusing.)

V is for VIEW FINDER.

VIEW FINDER. I spend a couple of hours most days looking at life through my camera’s view finder. It makes me focus on that which isn’t always too obvious. It allows me to look at the world from a different vantage point. I find that when I look at a small slice of the world through my camera lens, I end up seeing just the opposite–how huge and magnificent my world really is.

W is for the WINTER OF MY DISCONTENT.

WINTER OF MY DISCONTENT.  No longer am I going to spend the last half of winter in Wisconsin wishing it would go away. (Oooh – lots of alliteration in that sentence!) I would hate to count how many days I barely noticed, because I was in such a funk about the twenty inch snow pack, or the gray clouds, or the windchill, or the [fill in the blank with a nasty weather term]. This year I am avoiding the last two months of winter in Wisconsin, and going to Tucson, an area of the country I love. A promise of sunshine and warmer temps. And I can photograph outdoors without wearing multiple layers of wool. (If Wisconsin has great weather all of February and March, you can all thank me!)

X is for x, the unknown.

X. In the study of mathematics, X is an unknown within a set. So let’s consider math. [Most briefly.] In math equations, one is frequently asked to solve for x, the unknown quotient. Life is rather like math in that we also spend our lifetimes solving for x, for that huge unknown that lies ahead of us. But no matter how carefully we plan, we do not know how the future will unfold, and the cleverest of plans can be undone in seconds. Best to live today as fully as possible. Not wait until tomorrow.

Y is for YODEL.

YODEL. I wish that I knew how to yodel. Because some days, when the sun is brightly shining, and when I hear the wind whistling through the leaves, and the coyotes are howling in the back woods, I would like to add my voice to the song of the Universe. And yodeling seems like a fine way to join in the merriment. Listen to this yodeling. And I dare you not to smile! 🙂

Z is for ZEST.

ZEST. And finally, a simple poem to complete this year’s alphabet and begin the New Year:

“Another fresh new year is here . . .
Another year to live!
To banish worry, doubt, and fear,
To love and laugh and give!

This bright new year is given me
To live each day with zest . . .
To daily grow and try to be
My highest and my best!

I have the opportunity
Once more to right some wrongs,
To pray for peace, to plant a tree,
And sing more joyful songs!”

William Arthur Ward

Peace to all, Bo

An Alphabet in Four Parts – III

Cosmos at Sho-Low

Cosmos and Bokeh © 2010 Bo Mackison

Continuing with the third installment of my alphabet, my year-end/beginning musings:

N is for NEST.

NEST. Nest is simple and symbolic. It’s a comfort word for me. I hold it as a quiet space, away from distractions and other people. Sometimes I curl up in my nest, real or imaginary, to recharge my batteries. Doesn’t take long, and then I’m ready to go on and meet the world again.

O is for ORDINARY.

ORDINARY. When you get right down to it, there isn’t much that is ordinary. If you look closely and examine ordinariness, you often find that the ordinary is truly extra-ordinary. For example, drinking a steaming cup of tea, a simple experience, can be made extra-ordinary with intention, mindfulness, and appreciation for the good things in life.

P is for POTATO.

POTATO. The potato provided me with a powerful lesson. Yes, the potato. A basic food, everyone loves potatoes – mashed, smashed, french fried, baked, even raw and crunchy. Everyone I know eats potatoes – except for my older daughter who has taken only one bite of potato in her life. She decided that she despised the texture and taste and she swore off potatoes as a two year old. Twenty-eight years later, she continues to stand by her choice.

Here is the interesting part. Whenever a new person enters her life, and they discover that Jeanne does not eat potatoes because she  chooses not to eat them, they almost always go out of their way to trick her — to get her to unknowingly take a bite of a potato. It becomes a challenge for them.

Interesting, hmm? She tells people she doesn’t like potatoes, that she doesn’t eat them, and because that doesn’t fit squarely with other people’sapproach to food, they want to convince her to join their side. Now, we are talking about potatoes here. I’m always amazed that this happens repeatedly.  It makes me wonder.  If people react so strongly to a different eating style, just how far will they go to make people conform to their way of thinking about the important topics in life. Now there’s a potato for thought.

Q is for QUESTIONS.

QUESTIONS. I love asking questions. I love searching for answers to questions, too. And researching for answers to questions, too. To me, searching and researching are two different methods of knowledge seeking. In searching, I look for answers in my head and in past learning experiences. In researching, I look up what other people have discovered about the subject. Search and research–I think the two methods balances the quest for knowledge quite nicely.

R is for RELINQUISH.

RELINQUISH. I relinquish the story I hold dear. The story of why I am like I am, of how I can’t change because this experience or that exchange marked me for life. Bull hockey. Change isn’t easy. It’s damn hard work. But change is possible. And I am dealing in possibilities from this day forward. Tabula rasa. A clean slate. I can deal with some leftover chalk dust or a few wayward chalk smears, but I am erasing that complicated story. No more worn out explanations that stand in my way of new explorations.

S is for SURVIVOR.

SURVIVOR. I am a survivor. Survivors develop a deep strength within themselves. Sometimes I forget I have this strength. It takes a big challenge to remind me that I can draw strength from my past experiences without dredging up those experiences. A valuable lesson.

T is for TREASURE MAP.

TREASURE MAP. I made a treasure map a few days ago while thinking about leaving 2010 behind and entering 2011. I didn’t write resolutions, but I did choose a single word as my focus for the year – POSSIBILITIES. Then I drew islands on my treasure map. I filled in one island with my dreams. I filled in another island with my desires. I filled in a third with my goals for the next three months, six months, and year. I added a few favorite quotations for inspiration and motivation and a few words clipped from newspaper headlines for guidelines. Then I hung the map in my studio where I can see it everyday as I work. I love treasure maps!

The Finale — Underwear through Zest.