We did visit the American south west, years ago. It was a wonder filled month of exploring nature mixed in with stories of the past. This is where the Kokopelli character comes from. The land of red rock sands and the scent of sagebrush.

One of the many places we visited was Newspaper Rock. An expansive wall of stone, protected by a natural outcrop overhanging and protecting it from the elements. It left quite an impression on me, as well as thousands of other travelers. Rock art, petro-glyphs abound in the four corners area, where Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico all meet.

Kokopelli has stayed with me all these years, he’s quite a character. Many different legends circulate about his story. We chose one and carry it with ourselves back home. In my case, I’ve chosen the musical traveler leaving his songs and sometimes seed behind.

I’ve sketched the Kokopelli personality quite often since then. And just recently, he made his presence known as a tessellation. Bent over from the weight of his packed basket on his back, with a flute in hand, visiting all the villages he could reach on foot, hair flying in the wind, dancing to his tunes.

The tessellation below was accomplished in Symmetry Group P3.

A few more patterns in the same colour scheme as our Kokopelli character

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I am presently working on a Newspaper Rock pattern. If you are interested in seeing the results and keeping in touch with my latest efforts join the subscriber’s list in the right hand column — you will receive an email every time I post something new.

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