I recently embarked on a two week road trip to see parts of America I’ve never seen before. As my family and I drove across the country–through the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico–the landscape and sites constantly reminded me of works of art from the Museum’s collection.
We saw expansive flat lands transform into rolling hills, then the rough and brittle Badlands. We saw Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Monument in the Black Hills. We saw purple mountains and red rocks in Colorado and camped among tree filled peaks. We were even visited by a moose in the Rio Grande National Forest.
We drove past mesas, buttes, and Glen Canyon Dam. We kayaked in the clearest fresh water at Lake Powell and jumped off cliffs. We visited the (inaccurately named) Aztec Ruins left behind by an Ancestral Pueblo society. We saw the adobe houses and desert landscapes that inspired Georgia O’Keeffe. And then we made our way back home though west Texas.
Take a break from the Texas heat and take your own journey across the world and through time in the DMA’s permanent collection galleries this summer.
Jessica Fuentes
Manager of Gallery Interpretation and the Center for Creative Connections