The wondrous cloudscapes seen in recent days over Montezuma County also float in the work of local artist Rosie Carter.
Carter started five years ago capturing scenes like flocks of birds taking flight, in three-dimensional pieces all based on local scenes. Other pieces include silhouetted cottonwoods, swarming moths and stars suspended in a dark sky. Each one captures the fleeting details of the natural world that will continue even after humanity has passed away, she said.
"We think that we are so much the center of things, but if you just step back for a minute, you realize that we're not," she said.
Carter comes from a family of artists, but she never received formal training in the arts.
However, five years ago, she started to take some of the themes she had been using in her graphic design and bringing them off the page to with wire and screws.
As an owner of Stone Free Farm in Arriola, Carter said, she ponders the dynamic landscape while working outside.
"Living in a western landscape, it is so huge. You look out across the landscape and it is immense . you realize how insignificant you are more easily than if you lived in the middle of New York City," Carter said.
In her artist statement she said, she works to capture the "feeling that comes from looking out over boundless expanse and losing a sense of substance."
Her work drew the attention of Mancos resident and former interior designer Rena Wilson back in 2011 when Wilson offered to host a show for Carter at Arborena.
Wilson was intrigued by Carter's work and sought her out.
"It's so thought-provoking," Wilson said.
Carter will be returning to the restaurant, now known as Olio, for a reception March 8.
Since her show at Arborena, Carter has been featured in galleries in Albuquerque, Fort Collins and Taos. Her work is also more consistently on display at Studio and in Durango.
Her goal is to make into shows in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
"I can't help but be ambitious with things," she said.
While he describes her work as dark and some pieces seem that way, if you take her lonely shack depicted underneath dark clouds as an example. But she is not depressed by vast landscapes that leave humans to seem insignificant.
"I take solace in that unsteady feeling that comes from looking out over a boundless expanse," Carter wrote in her artist statement.
