If you are headed for southeast Utah, there is something special to stop and see in Blanding at the Edge of the Cedars State Park. The museum and ruins at this place are well worth visiting, along with a newly created piece of art and science located behind the ruins.
This piece of sculpture, named "Sun Marker," should be seen many times, for each time you go there you will see something different. It is a never-ending performance with one of the players being the most powerful object in our sky - the sun. Every day, from sun-up to sundown, sunlight streams onto "Sun Marker," interacting with components skillfully put there by its creator.Joe Pachak made "Sun Marker" as a learning laboratory more than as a showpiece. He carefully planned each detail, yet he continues to discover solar interactions that he could not have planned. For him, and for many others who visit "Sun Marker," it is a discovery piece that can help us better appreciate changes in the sky and the ways changes were understood and monitored by earlier inhabitants of this spectacular land.
Pachak's passionate interest - at least one of them - is Native American rock art. He is one of the most knowledgeable rock art scholars, especially of American Southwest rock art. He knows thousands of rock art sites and remembers details about all of them.
As Pachak wandered Colorado Plateau country, he was interested in interaction of light and shadow with figures carved into and painted on the rocks. Indian people probably painted and pecked figures on rocks so that interactions between rock and light occur.
For many years Pachak has studied rock art in exceptional ways. He has sculpted three-dimensional renderings of figures placed on rocks by Native Americans of the Southwest. On the grounds around Edge of the Cedars Museum, you can see a few of these magnificent creations looking as though they just stepped off surfaces of the rocks and out of kivas onto our contemporary landscape. Inside the museum are walls covered with collections of rock art figures painted there by Pachak.
"Sun Marker" was designed to exemplify interactions between rock art and light drawn from Native American beliefs and values related to rock art motifs.
"Sun Marker" has an intriguing cylindrical form, oriented north and south, colored like nearby sandstones. Carved into this sculpture are figures that are common in rock art: spirals and concentric circles, mountain sheep, flute players and other human forms, and tracks of animals.
Throughout the day and through the year as well, sunlight (and moonlight) plays through these cutout symbols to cast bright images onto other parts of the sculpture. These creatures, tracks and forms, composed of sunlight, swim upon the surfaces to record the passage of time. Special features mark sunrise, midday and sunset for spring and autumn equinox, summer and winter solstice and other dates as well.
Although "Sun Marker's" basic structure has been created, this work of art-science might never be completed. Pachak continues to discover and add details of interest to himself and others.