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Dead Horse Kaleidoscope

Dead Horse Kaleidoscope

Friends –

I am sure that all my friends have seen a kaleidoscope, and know that it is a tubular-shaped toy with a viewing hole at one end and a hole for light source at the other end. In between, this gizmo holds mirrors and some sort of colored particles as well. When you look into a kaleidoscope and make the particles move you get magical and hypnotic continually-changing patterns of shapes and colors.

Well, sometimes when I am walking around in southeast Utah I feel as though I must be inside some sort of giant kaleidoscope – and I swear that I do not do drugs! It is just that the colors are so varied and magical and they change – often drastically – depending on the time of day, amount of cloud cover and the angle of the sun.

This is particularly true in places like Dead Horse Point State Park (DHP). The Park is so high up on the mesa that you can see far into the distance and also far down below -- through many different colored layers of geology, representing centuries of time and massive action that had to happen to make the world what it is today. DHP is like the kaleidoscope with shapes that repeat across the distance and colors move and change by the minute. Especially in the autumn when the angle of the sun is best, I feel as though I am but a tiny speck moving around in a ginormous kaleidoscope. And in some ways, perhaps I am.

I will take this 11x14" oil on linen to our 'Points of View' show at Dead Horse Point State Park, unless it is first requested from someone in exchange for a donation to a worthwhile non-profit.


Margie Lopez Read




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