The Ancestors’ Gift

acrylic on panel – 18″ X 24″
© 2022 Sandra Ware

Petroglyphs and Pictographs, millennia old
Left on the rock for the generations
Fraught with meaning
Of which no one alive can be certain
Resonant but enigmatic
Both foreign and familiar
An inducement to dive and to delve
An incitement to wander and to wonder
          Is mystery itself the gift?

The petroglyphs in the painting were inspired by some that were discovered at Mojave Lake, Arizona. Though no one today can say definitively exactly what was intended or symbolized by these various designs, we can derive from the field work of anthropologists, and from the living traditions of various native tribes, an invigorating and informed speculation. Their abiding value, even to the non-native, is surely in the wonder they inspire.