We journeyed further to the south of New Mexico, to the huge and sprawling underground caverns of Carlsbad. The womb of the earth, that concept seemed to linger from the ancients who had discovered this place. Fantastic underground mineral formations created over millennia by water dripping over limestone fill one immense interconnected cavern after another, like some fabulous Gaudi dreamworld. These fantasy sculptures grow by incredibly slow geological processes in the earth's secret galleries. And the artist's tools of immense time and stone and water work mysteriously, as water dripping over stone can either build up a formation or reduce it, depending on the chemistry. The womb of the earth, more secret even than the canyons, is a hidden sub-world that you would never expect from traveling across the seemingly endless plains on the surface.

The American Southwest. The canyons here are like reverse mountains, and the arid plains seem to contradict the oceans that once surged here. The solitude is the opposite of the cities we live in. There is so much that touches you, both what is here and what is not. The vast openness outside of you somehow opens you inside and opens your senses to the world outside of you. You understand why these places were and are sacred to Native Americans. They reveal, they inspire, they give you perspective. You can glimpse the immensity of time. You are touched by the traces of ancient humans, you feel their presence and you own fading like footprints in desert sand. These are places that take you beneath the surface of everyday existence and expose the layers of life beneath. They allow you to get closer to the core, nearer to the center, more connected to the source. These are canyons of the heart and vistas of the soul.

SW, 2004, Florida

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