Ancient Ruins

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Red Ruins

 One of the most common ways to build a structure is called the post and lintel system. Just like when you were a baby and you placed one block on top of two vertical blocks, so did our earliest ancestors and this system has been around since the beginning of prehistoric architecture.
Most art historians differentiate between shelters and architecture. Architecture is more public/civic minded. Architecture has a functional AND aesthetic purpose. Basically, architecture is designed to 'dress up' the community.
Stonehenge was designed with the post and lintel system. They also created pegs in the posts and holes in the lintels to make sure this structure lasted a long, long time. This is called mortise and tenon and it's another device that holds things together without any hammer or nails.
Prehistoric structures are both beautiful and fascinating because we do not know the real purpose for these creations. Since they were created before any writing system, we will always wonder what the real functional purpose was.
I love a good mystery which is why a lot of my work involves ancient temples. These structures become icons for me representing the ancient, the mysterious and the religious in art.


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