36 Views of Baylor Canyon: Thom Sawyer

This series of color pencil drawings, titled 36 Views of Baylor Canyon, was made over a span of nearly two years in southern New Mexico, near
the Organ Mountains. They have to do with a conflicted sense of place: the everyday domestic world on the western side of the mountains,
coexisting with the neighboring valley, which is the location of the world's largest weapons testing facilities, White Sands Missile Range, and the Trinity Site, where the first atomic bomb was detonated.

36 Views refers to Hokusai's series of images of Mount Fuji, a symbol of national beauty, strength and pride, captured from numerous vantage points. In the Baylor Canyon series, Mount Fuji is replaced by a largely unknown, nondescript landform that, given the activities of White Sands Missile Range, could be understood as a similar symbol of national might. But those activities also bring a sense of unease that is juxtaposed against daily, domestic life.