The Narrative Image

Back in May of 2011, I shared some of the details of my search for Loring site 15. http://thenarrativeimage.blogspot.com/2011/05/sound-of-one-hand-clapping-loring-site.html By Loring site I mean one of the rock art sites documented in J. Malcolm and Louise Loring's two volume monograph called Pictographs and Petroglyphs of the Oregon Country.   In that post, I noted that, " Many of the paintings seem worse for wear when compared to the Loring drawings…to the degree that my identifications are not always certain." Since that trip, D. Russel Micnhimer, of Oregon Rock Art ( http://www.oregonrockart.com/index.html ), has introduced me to a specialized bit of software called DStretch by Jon Harman ( http://www.dstretch.com/ ). As Micnhimer said to me in a Facebook message, " It's the closest thing I know of to absolute magic; (it) will make the invisible appear." So what follows is a series of my pictures from Loring site 15 that ...

(Note: clicking on images should display a larger version) Graffiti. Sometimes it’s just a signature – a tag. Sometimes it’s a message. And sometimes, it’s art. Graffiti on a train Sad thing is…I can’t tell the difference…at least not always.   Why do we post symbols in public places? What does a bird mean? Without proper cultural context… ...can we ever know the original intent of the symbol maker? I stumbled upon my first pictograph on a kayak/camping trip in 2008. It’s amazing that these painted images persist. Is it a message? An advertisement? An icon? ...a warning? Since then I’ve read some Oregon Archeological Society publications (primarily by Keyser) and learned of vision quests, shamans, ghost cults and power drawings. Plus, on the historical context side of the story, I’ve learned that these kinds of painted rock images are the product of a once dominant society that was being decimate...