For Immediate Release: May 13, 2004
Contact: Michael J. Williams or Victoria Atkins: 970- 882-5600

BLM Anasazi Heritage Center to open new exhibit

A pair of special exhibits, one spanning the vast Colorado Plateau and the other crossing centuries of human experience, will open at the Anasazi Heritage Center on Monday, May 10. They will be open to the public every day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through July 9.

“Mindscapes: The Aerial Photography of Adriel Heisey” offers visitors a unique vision of the Four Corners and the desert Southwest. From a bird’s eye view, the landscape shows an exotic, other-worldly face rarely imagined by the earthbound traveler. His mysterious and compelling images show swirls of color and texture that sometimes look more like abstract paintings or elaborate desserts.

Adriel Heisey began flying airplanes when he was fifteen years old. While working as an executive pilot with the Navajo Nation, he also explored remote reaches of the vast area. “I studied the archaeology of the Four Corners region while living and flying in the heart of it,” he says.

At the same time, Heisey was pursuing another dream. In 1990 he built an ultra-light airplane specifically designed for use in photography. With one knee strapped to the control stick and his hands free to work, he has enjoyed ample opportunity to study his subject matter in every possible light and weather condition.

Heisey has exhibited his aerial photographs in Connecticut, Washington, D.C., Nebraska, Texas, New Mexico, Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona. In 1996, National Geographic magazine featured his work in a cover story “Hawk High Over the Four Corners.” He lives in Tucson, Arizona.

The other exhibit, “Sand Island: Time Etched in Stone” documents one of America’s most spectacular rock art panels. Its blackened sandstone face shows hundreds of etched figures, some made as recently as the last century, others older than the Egyptian pyramids. Silhouettes of Ute hunters on horseback rub shoulders with shamans from a time before agriculture. Memories and messages from countless human generations are recorded on the rock. The images’ enigmatic origins and meanings still challenge modern interpretation.  The exhibit includes a diverse commentary from Zuni, Hopi and Navajo consultants and a section about how to date rock art styles. Today, Sand Island is a BLM recreation site alongside the San Juan River near Bluff, Utah.

The Anasazi Heritage Center is a museum operated by the Bureau of Land Management and is located three miles west of Dolores, Colorado on Highway 184. The Heritage Center is also headquarters for Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. Special Exhibits and events are made possible through the Recreation Fee Demonstration Program. For more information, call the Center at (970) 882-5600 or visit the Center's web site at www.co.blm.gov/ahc/.

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