Last summer, during a road trip to a family reunion in Colorado, I had a fleeting opportunity to photograph a cluster of giant granite boulders hovering above Hwy 24, near Florissant, Colorado. The tiny community was named after Florissant, Missouri, the hometown of Judge James Castello, an early settler. 

We decided to take an unplanned excursion off the main road to explore the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, located near Pikes Peak, one of Colorado's 53 fourteeners.

Approximately 34 million years ago, the area was a lake environment with redwood forests. What remains today, following a series of stratovolcanoes, is one of the largest deposits of petrified wood and fossils, highly prized by paleontologists and thousands of dinosaur enthusiasts.

Memories of that pleasant afternoon hiking past enormous stumps of petrified wood surrounded by towering pine trees and wild flowers, was a creative force for this oil painting. After blocking in the shapes of the boulders and adding layers of paint to create texture, I began to see unique features and even faces. These were not just an ordinary pile of rocks high on a mountain side. One could imagine petrified giants keeping a watchful eye on the noisy highway traffic below as laughing clouds raced across the deep blue sky.

The "If Rocks Could Talk" commissioned painting in its elegant gold frame is soon headed to its 'forever home' in Colorado. I have enjoyed listening to the imaginary quiet conversations.

Betty Moore
photographer / artist

P.S. The "Heirloom" custom-designed scarf, featuring my painting of white Peonies, is available from the 'Art of Gift Giving Guide.'