#03 Cait Jewell 2024. 03 Tahquitz and Tech.

Drawing inspiration from the desert legend of Tahquitz—a spirit said to haunt the canyons of Palm Springs—this piece explores the interplay between ancient myth and modern industry. The swirling forms and layered textures evoke desert winds, whispering stories of mischief, movement, and transience. Towering wind turbines, barely outlined in ghostly glints, reference the fleeting nature of technology: ever-present, yet already decaying in the mind’s eye.

Built on a foundation of fresco secco, the painting carries the raw tactility of sunbaked earth, while cold wax and pigment are layered like shifting sands. The result is a visual echo of time collapsing—a trickster's gust that blurs the boundaries between past and present, spirit and machine.
At its core, Tahquitz and Tech is a meditation on legacy—what we build, what we forget, and what still howls in the wind.