Sandhill cranes Monte Vista San Luis Valley Ceramic Art Tile

A high valley in southern Colorado, ringed by the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and the San Juans, the valley floor held above seven thousand feet. Around twenty thousand sandhill cranes stage here every spring on the way from wintering grounds in New Mexico to their nesting country in the northern Rockies. They feed in the leftover barley fields through the day and roost in shallow flooded ponds at night. The sound carries for a long way before the light does. People drive in for the Crane Festival in March, but the cranes are here for weeks on either side of it.

Slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, in our family studio in Knoxville, Tennessee.