The story behind the artwork

Death Valley National Park, was created over many years by a variety powerful forces. From intense heat of volcanos, to frigid ice ages, to vast melt-water lakes, the landscape has evolved into the arid desert it is today. It is no surprise to find strange and unexpected things here.

I was hiking through a cool rock canyon one day with smooth alabaster-like walls. In the bottom of the canyon I came across a boulder very unlike the rock around me. Even when I looked up, I could not find this rock's equal in color or texture. Not being a geologist, I found it curious and was inspired to read about Death Valley's geology. I learned about dropstones.

A dropstone is an isolated fragment of a rock found within finer-grained water-deposited sedimentary rocks. They can be as small as a pebbles or as large as a boulder. Their most distinguishing feature is that they were not transported by normal water currents, but rather dropped in vertically through the water column. Most commonly these occur by the act of powerful glaciers, but they can also occur from the force of volcanos. I don't know if what I had seen was a true dropstone, but in my painting, it is a dropstone.

To me, it's a fantastic notion that something as massive and heavy as a boulder could just carelessly drop into position, like a seed dropping from a giant hand-full of seeds. Since I came across this boulder in Fall Canyon, there could be no better title for my painting.

dropstone
acrylic on canvas
36x12"

Additional Links:

Read more about Death Valley's geology.