Maddin Creek
(deconstructed cave painting)

I began Maddin Creek with an urge to make a deconstructed cave painting. I wanted to parody the idea of a “deconstructed salad,” but with an anthropological phenomenon thousands of years old. I personally found each rock in the piece at Haunted Ridge in Washington County, Missouri. These stones are drusy quartz with agate banding. They absolutely litter the area but cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Nearby Haunted Ridge is the Maddin Creek Site, a paleolithic rock art site with carvings nearly one thousand years old. I lifted a glyph from one of those rocks and copied it onto the calf skin—the quintessential cave art subject—in a shade of yellow unnatural enough to scare the original carver half-to-death. The rocks—usually the substrate of Paleolithic art—now help pull the calf skin taught for the mysterious glyph to be painted on.
 

Everyone is encouraged to touch and feel Maddin Creek (respectfully)! Investigate the quartz rocks with your phone flashlight. We should be able to touch art more often... (20% of proceeds will go to Missouri’s American Indian Heritage Fund).