The Rock Art of Texas Indians

In The Rock Art of Texas Indians, Kirkland's meticulous watercolor copies of this rich and diversified art are reproduced, 32 in full color, the rest in black and white. The informative and engaging text is contributed by W. W. Newcomb, Jr., former director of the Texas Memorial Museum and author of The Indians of Texas. Those early Indians, at different times and places and in a variety of styles, carved and painted their art from Paint Rock in West Central Texas to the canyons of the Big Bend, from the Canadian River Valley in the Panhandle to the Hueco Tanks near El Paso. As the form for this art was varied, so too were the reasons for its execution. Much rock art was no doubt born of magical and religious beliefs, or served to illustrate myths, but some apparently commemorated actual events and some seems to have been only tallies or messages. Kirkland recorded it all with consummate skill, preserving for other generations, as he said he would, the often remarkable, always fascinating art of vanished people.