North Texas
(2008-09-30)
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MD Davis (left) sculptor of "Rock Art"
For the past 20 years, MD Davis has been recreating American Indian cave art - ancient drawings in Texas caves and shelters. For the State Fair, she created a stone sculpture at her studio in Lewisville. It's a 6-foot tall, white, stone slab, set into a slot carved in a huge, round rock. Davis makes her own paints, just as the ancient cave artists made them. The Yucca root is part of the recipe for the paints she makes out of crushed rock to be as authentic as possible.
Davis uses a 500-year-old stone mortar to create the paints. Then she adds some bone marrow to the Yucca and crushed rock. Davis uses shades of red, black, white and ocher. For the State Fair, she has recreated two Shaman paintings from the Lower Pecos River area.
Davis: One is on Panther Cave, which is at the mouth of Seminole Canyon and the Rio Grande. Panther Cave is well over 4,000 years old. The White Shaman is on a little bitty side canyon off the Pecos River, which also empties into the Rio Grande. Davis' sculpture is part of Landscaper Devon DeBolt's garden in Fair Park. He says he designed it to reflect the southwestern feel of the artwork.
DeBolt: Western based plants, all are perennial, grasses. We've chosen plants that are western-based, Texas hardy plants that are going to complement the art piece very well. Davis was a little nervous supervising the move of the stone monolith with the paintings on it and a heavy, rock base for the sculpture rolled out of her studio and hoisted onto the back of a truck.
At Fair Park, Davis directed placement of the sculpture and talked about her love of rock art or cave art. She says her father introduced it on a family vacation when she was about 7 years old.
Davis: As soon as I saw it, I was just awestruck. It was just the most magnificent thing that I had ever seen. Very, very rudimental, a little bit more stick figures than what we see here. And I went back to the campsite and I kinda drew them. Being rudimental, I could kind of draw stick figures real well. And I just loved it.
Davis says she's not concerned that all the hard work she poured into this rock art sculpture may only get a passing glance from many fairgoers who are concentrating on corny dogs and the Midway.
Davis: No, it doesn't bother me at all. You know, somewhere in the mind's eye, especially with something as primitive as the rock art, something in the mind's eye is going to touch, I think, everybody. 100 gardens make up the State Fair's Fall Garden Exposition, half of them feature specially commissioned sculptures. The rock art sculpture garden is outside the Fair Park band shell, across from Discovery Gardens.
Link Winners of the 2008 State Fair Garden contest
Link Map of the Gardens
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