Here is the history of how Connolly began making these Petroglyph re-creations:
It all started when a college course in speech opened the doors to art as expression. Instead of writing a paper describing Connolly's life, ambitions, hopes and dreams, her professor allowed her to paint it.
“That was my first real opportunity to use symbolism to express myself. I got an A and continued to use painting as a form of communication,” she said.
While teaching at an alternative high school in Heber City, Utah, she encouraged students to expand their communication skills through art and once again noticed how symbolism played a part.
After a trip to Mesa Verde, she was inspired by the cliff dwellings and the ancient messages left behind. “That did it for me. I realized how precious these messages are. The expression people use about how something is not written in stone takes on a whole new meaning. Here is something that was written in stone! It must be important,” she thought.
Her language background and love of reading was expanded to include legends and myths of ancient cultures. The native mythologies, ceremonies and legends all go hand in hand with the petroglyphs and pictographs, Connolly said.
About 15 years ago while camping in Sego Canyon, she explained, a group of teenage boys raced up the road, randomly shooting the rocks at 6:30 a.m. Asked to stop because of the recently restored pictographs, they claimed they were unaware. At that point, educating the public about the Native American wonders left behind became her top priority.
Originally started as a way to preserve the rock art images without bullet holes or graffiti, Connolly expanded her vision to include similarities from around the world.
“There is a common visual language that joins all of us. It is my intent to bring these images alive, and show our universal connections. There are places I have been that are hard to get to. Hopefully, people will appreciate seeing something that may be physically inaccessible for them. Each person that does connect to this work, connects to a message for them.
“Some people cry, some are speechless. There is an intuitive interaction that occurs. It is almost like a light turned on. The light has certainly been turned on for me. When I stand in front of rock art, messages come flooding into me. This is something I don’t usually talk about because it sounds so quirky, but once someone else feels it, they know what I am talking about,” she said.
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