Natural stone on hand-formed substrate. In the petroglyphs and pictographs of the American Southwest, messages emerge as stick figures and symbols rather than accurate renderings. Lunar calendars, religious ceremonies, historical events and relationships between man and nature are depicted in shorthand patterns and stick figures. I visited a remote valley in northern New Mexico and was overwhelmed by the number of images left by Native American nomadic tribes. Were these images of fertility? (Exhibit A: the Spirit Keeper!) Were they place markers? Calendars marking seasons, stars, or female cycles? In her book Valley of Shining Stone, Lesley Poling-Kempes writes, "The Pueblo People of New Mexico believe that the earth is imbued with the breath, thoughts, and feelings of every person that has ever placed a foot upon it. They say that the earth is alive with the spirits of those who have walked across its body: the faraway past vibrates in the soil, and the stories of the long-ago people lie scattered like stones upon the places that once harbored them."