Umm - a collaboration

Writing on the Walls:
my quest for prehistoric messages in Spain

My interpretation of cave art done in Procreate

“When we make things with our hands we put into them energy which comes from our innermost self.  When we see and feel objects which were made by craftsmen long dead I believe we can still sense their energy lying beneath each brush-stroke or sweep of the pen, and we can respond to this energy as much as to the object’s surface beauty or ingenuity of design.” - Donald Jackson, The Story of Writing

View from entrance to El Pindal

In October of 2018 my husband and I went on an adventure to Spain for the sole purpose of seeing prehistoric cave art.  This adventure began 6 or 7 years ago with a book I found while browsing the art section of a used book store. Not quite a “coffee table” type book and certainly not a text book, Prehistoric Cave Art in Northern Spain Asturias, is a colorfully written survey by artist, archeologist, and lecturer of Fine Arts, Magín Berenguer.  I poured over this book and the meticulous reproductions of the drawings found in just a few of the caves with art that have been discovered in Cantabria and Asturias on the northern coast of Spain. I was fascinated that the sensitively drawn horses, deer and bison were between 15,000 and 70,000 years old. When I found out that several of these caves are open to the public (on a limited basis) I became obsessed with seeing them in person! Once we got ourselves to Santander, Spain, we shook off the jet-lag by wandering around this city by a bay.  Lots of families walking in the evening, sitting in large groups outside at cafés, window shopping, laid-back, welcoming. We got tapas & wine. We toured the excellent Prehistory Museum to prepare for visits to the caves.

The next day we drove about 45 minutes outside the city to the cave El Pindal.  The landscape is dramatic - on one side of the highway cliffs drop to the ocean, on the other side the land juts upward in steep peaks known as the Picos de Europa. The car’s GPS took us to a steep, remote edge of the water where we followed signs past an abandoned hermitage and grazing goats down stairs cut into the cliff to the mouth of the cave and the tour guide. We lucked out and were the only people touring that day, so our guide was able to conduct the tour in English for us. The mouth of the cave was very large, open to the ocean on a high cliff overlooking crashing waves and craggy rocks covered with vegetation. We entered the cave - it was cool, damp and slippery. The guide was the only one with a flashlight, so we stayed close. The first image he revealed was a mammoth - no mistaking it! Hump back, trunk, tusks - WOW! Our guide pointed out bison, horses and horse heads, deer, human hand prints! Simple drawings, some scraped into the cave wall, some drawn with charcoal, some painted in ochre mixed with animal fats. All most definitely drawn from observation with expressive outlines and varying amounts of details, by someone with a good eye. What did they mean? Who drew them? What could they be trying telling us? It’s impossible to know for certain, but as an artist I can relate to the need to “catch” the thought with a sketch.Within the next week we drove to three other caves within an hour of Santander.  El Buxu, Tito Bustillo and the museum/reproduction cave of Altimira. Our experience at each place was one of true awe at seeing messages written by hand tens of thousands of years ago. These picture messages were so compelling to me because I wanted to understand MORE of what was going on in the thoughts and spirits of the people writing the messages. As an artist, I understand wanting to try and capture urgent or touching or powerful sights and feelings through symbols and images. It is comforting, uplifting, cathartic. This is what spoke to me from the walls of the caves - I got the message.The caves are protected, with limited viewing and many are not open to the public, and no photography is allowed. I have included a few photos from the reproduction of Altimira cave and some interesting signage from the trip. 
“When we ourselves write we not only communicate information by the choice and sequence of the words; we also reveal something our our inner spirit with every tremor of the hand.” Donald Jackson, The Story of Writing.

Steep climb up to El Buxu cave

My interpretation of cave art from Tito Bustillo, done in Procreate