The Shrub Steppe Photos of Jo N. Miles

One of the highlights of living in Yakima is coming into contact with the photography of Jo N. Miles.  Jo is a local historian who wanders the Yakima foothills searching for historical monuments and stunning sights and captures the essence of Shrub steppe from Yakima to White Pass and from Selah to the Manastash and Umptanum Ridges.  If you want to prusue further the published work of Miles see his blog at: jomilestoppenish1907

Jo's pic at Clark's Fork

Here is Jo's "signature Photo" for a while, until he comes up with one even more astounding.  This is along the William O. Douglas Trail west of Rocky Top.  I like the depth of field and the way the picture draws you into the center of it.

Let's start on Russell ridge near Fox Meadow looking into the Goat Rocks.  We are looking over the top of LClear Lake and Highway 12 into the Tieton S. Fork.  That's Old Snowy there in the distance with a dusting of late October snow.

Coming back on Russell ridge, toward Cash Prairie we get a late spring photo of the east side of Shellrock Peak, Mt, Rainier and the slopes into the Rattlesnake drainage.  Great photo Jo. 

This photo takes us all the way back to the Yakima River atop Umptanum Ridge.  Jo has a great eye for contrasting the natural setting with historic relics or hikers.  Not sure how he got that bum to pose, but he seems to be propped up with a walking stick.  In the distance, Selah point. 

Black Canyon flows west off Umptanum ridge.  At the top Ponderosa Pine stands crop up but Black Canyon is a marrow, riparian surprise on an otherwise dry ridge. Here is an old drovers cabin, half way up the canyon. 

Hogback ridge, just off the PCT south of White Pass.  

Rainier seen over the top of Manastash Ridge

Here is a basalt spire in Bear Canyon

Here is a shot of Clemans Mt to the west looking over the top of Wenas Valley from Buffalo

And finally, one that really captures a cold, crisp October morning on the Tieton River.  The cottonwood leaves have turned a brillant yellow and you can smell the smoke from campers warming fire.

Jo has some other great shots.  You can buy his CD at Whistl'n Jacks Lodge and Inklings Books or watch the Cowiche Canyon newsletter for new photos. And, you can visit his blog at http://jomilestoppenish1907.blogspot.com/

New posts are coming out soon on on "Ceramic Portraits.  Be sure to visit us again.  

Polychrome Southwest pottery

In this post I'm wnat to discuss Southwest  "polychrome" pottery, particularly ancient pottery of Northern Mexico, meaning that created between 1200ad and 1450ad, though of course the artistic tradition was started much earlier and continues to today in modern interpretations of ancient art and design forms.

I simply don't have any photos of this ware, you'll have to search out the books on Casas Grandes and see for yourself.

Anyway, over Christmas break I became familar with an interesting book titled "Casas Grandes and the Ceramic Arts of the Ancient Southwest".  This is an amazing picture book published by University of Chicago.  The text is so-so, but forget that for now.

BACKGROUND:  Many know of Casa Grande in western central New Mexico.  However, 90 miles south of the Mexican border (from New Mexico) an interesting cultural tradition of Pueblos and pottery began sometime before 1000 ad.  These large communities constructed and occupied, in waves of occupation and abandonment multi story adobe cities and flourished until around 1450ad, though many of the old pueblos are still occupied today.

During the peak of this civilization (event 1200-1450) the Ceramics reached a remarkable design appex standing as (probably) the most original and technically advanced artistic traditions in the Americas.  What started as large seed jars used by an agraian communities, the jars eventually reached an artistic level that carried on throughout several centuries of alternate site occupancy and abandonment.

I went on to read several more books about what we know about this culture which adds up to very little, including what the designs they painted expressed.  They could be a language, pictorial stories or records, or a codex.  In some ways they are little different from North Coast totem poles or phoenician text/pictures.  No doubt these forms were connected to the Mayan of the Central Mexican Valley and the Aztacs, evolving into Anasazi and Papagoda cultures.  Bottom line, there has been lots of conjecture but no one really knows much about this culture or the people who lived in Casas Grandes during it's appex.

One thing the book, and other books completely fail to delve into , beyond mentioning it again and again in archaeological records, are the spindle whorls found in studies of these old sites.  These whorls indicate a strong plant fiber tradition based on cotton and the use of drop spindles used for making yarn.

Over winter quarter/12 I hope to try and replicate some of the ceramic styles of Polychrome.  I don't have any plans to achieve much success, but it should be interesting to see how hard it is to replace the technical standards of this unique earthenware.  The designs, being so personal and complicated are beyond the scope of this project. Further research in the production of cotton by this culture is in order.  I hope to have several pieces of "modern polychrome" pottery ready for the summer 2012 Mighty Tieton show.    I'm really quite curious what will come out of it.  In the meantime, if you are remotely interested in polychrome, check this book out and look and all the lovely pictures,,, it really is a unique book.  I hope to make up for this "picturless" post" with a post on the photos of Jo Miles.  Keep tuned.