FISSURES!

Having just completed “El Tajo Gorge, Ronda, Spain”, it was exciting to have it juried into the “FISSURES!” show at the Emerald Art Center in Springfield, Oregon. I will have to ship it mid-February, so I need to enjoy it for the next few days. The exhibit will run from March 5 to March 30.

Artist Statement: The views of the El Tajo gorge, once a fortification in its own natural right, and the surrounding countryside are spectacular and captured my imagination on a visit in 2015. The full colors of sunset were spectacular, as was the view during the full hot sun of daylight. Ronda, an impregnable town created in Neolithic times in Malaga, Spain, sits above the El Tajo gorge that guides the Guadalevín River through town center. Ronda was first declared a city by Julius Caesar in 1AD with the Moorish culture and religion dominating Ronda until Christians first forced entry in 1485. The Puente Nuevo (New Bridge) is the third and newest of bridges built to promote the flow of residents and world-wide visitors through town. It was built in 1793 and took forty-two years for construction. There are two older bridges and all three bridges now unite the culturally diverse societies. Puente Nuevo provides not only a physical path between the two cliffs above the El Tajo gorge, but also conjoins the old culture and architecture set apart by the gorge in ancient times with more modern society and structures on the other end. When in Spain, do not miss a visit to Ronda!