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  • Stefan Baumann
  • Armand Cabrera
  • Tom Lockhart

Stefan Baumann

Mesa One, Hopi Reservation
12x18 Oil on Linen 2003

Journal April 16, 2oo1

I’m enjoying my trip to Arizona and New Mexico. At a trading post in Indian
Lands, I ran across an antique postcard; the sepia image was of a cluster of buildings atop a mesa. I remembered seeing the image before in an old history text. I purchased the card and began my quest for the vista. I asked an interpretive ranger at Mesa Verde National Park and I was smiled upon by fate; he informed me that it was his family’s home on the Hopi reservation. After a lengthy discussion about the history of the village, he invited me to meet his family and be given a tour of the historical place, The oldest village in America.

After an 8-hour journey, I found myself at the foot of a massive, ancient rock and began the climb to the top. To my amazement, the Pueblo village still looked like the old photograph on the postcard. The family allowed me to do some sketches of the village in the warm glow of the setting sun. The vision inspired me; I will take these sketches to my studio and capture the soul of this experience on canvas..

Sashone Falls
12x18 Oil on Linen 2003

Upon our journey to Montana I decided to visit the ghost of Shoshone Falls. I had seen the falls before, but had always dreamed of experiencing the vista 100 years ago when Thomas Moran captured the intensity of the roaring vision. My last visit proved disappointing because the falls were a skeleton of their once grand scale. But, like visiting a fading friend, I felt obligated to visit.

The falls are still an impressive characteristic of the Snake River; They drop 212 feet and were once billed as the "Niagara Falls of the west". Early explorers were amazed by the vision, as were landscape painters of the late 19th century. Plans were made to preserve Shoshone Falls as a tourist destination, but the need for water took precedence, and regional farmers soon evolved their own agenda for the River. A dam was built to harness the resource, and the vista was changed forever. In 1905, the structure was completed, and the gates of Milner Dam were closed; That night, Shoshone Falls went dry.

But...I find myself graced. Recent warm rains have caused flooding in Idaho (an event that meteorologist's call the "100 year flood") and Milner Dam had to be opened for the first time in 92 years. For only a short time, the Snake River was restored. Today, I found myself witnessing what very few artists had ever seen. I sketched furiously in watercolors and oil, knowing that this moment would be brief. The Falls roared with intensity, reclaiming their once phenomenal glory. I kept taking snapshots in my mind...feeling the mist and absorbing the sound; I knew this would be the last time In my life that I would experience this vision. It took me a long time to say goodbye; darkness was the only force that could motivate my departure. I knew what the dawn had in store for Shoshone Falls and it proved almost unbearable.

But then I found comfort; For one titanic instant, nature forced the hand of a modern world. I probably won't go back in the morning. I fear my fading friend will make me cry.

Nevada Falls, Yosemite National Park
24"x18" Oil on Linen 2004

San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo (The Mission of Carmel)
8"x10" Oil on Linen 2001

Point Lobos, incoming surf, 2004
oil on canvas Mounted on board, (4"x12")

Navajo National Monument, 2003
Oil on linen, (10" x 8")