Ancient Colorado Comes to Life in
10 New Paintings at the
Colorado Convention Center
DENVER—August 21, 2006—Visitors to the Colorado Convention Center can do a little time traveling (300 million years to be exact) by viewing 10 stunning new paintings of Ancient Colorado. The paintings were created by artist Jan Vriesen and Denver Museum of Nature & Science chief curator Dr. Kirk Johnson with funding from the City’s One Percent for Art Program administered by the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs. To make the paintings accurate, Johnson collected scientific data from the Garden of the Gods, Red Rocks, Telluride, Dinosaur National Monument, Lake Pueblo State Park, Marshall Mesa, Plains Conservation Center, South Table Mountain in Golden, Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, and the dune fields near Wray.
“Paleontologists are time travelers,” said Johnson. “When we find fossils, we find fragments of some long-lost landscape. When we find enough fragments, a fuzzy picture of that place begins to form in our minds. For the last 15 years, I have been piecing together mental images of what Colorado has looked like over the last 300 million years.”
Visitors will find a free pamphlet which explains the ancient Colorado landscapes and urges conventioneers to visit the Museum and the fossil sites. Paintings include:
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Pole Forest depicts scaly lycopod trees that grew 300 million years ago in an area that would eventually become the Garden of the Gods near Colorado Springs.
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Slimy Shoreline takes you to Red Rocks Park 250 million years ago when it was a sweltering coastline covered with single-cell bacteria and algae, living together in mounded colonies known as stromatolites.
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Triassic Thickets features an armored herbivore known as an aetosaur grazing in a wetland that 225 million years later would become landscape around Telluride.
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Stegosaurus Snacks allows you to see a stegosaur from 145 million years ago at home in a landscape of bennettite bushes and tree ferns that would become Dinosaur National Monument.
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Maritime Colorado takes you to Lake Pueblo State Park 85 million years ago and helps you understand that a mile-thick layer of ancient marine mud and limestone lies beneath Denver.
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Triceratops Swamp features the ancient swamps from 68 million years ago which eventually became the coal deposits at Marshall Mesa near Boulder.
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After Armageddon depicts fern meadows and alligator-infested creeks in an area which is now called the West Bijou Valley a few years after a giant asteroid struck Mexico’s Yucatan 65.5 million years ago.
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Rainforest Eruption shows the volcanic activity that formed the flat tops of the North and South Table Mountains in Golden 64 million years ago.
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Redwoods and Roses allows you to peek at huge redwood trees that grew 34 million years ago in the area that is now the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument.
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Ghost Predator depicts a prehistoric lion hunting camels 30,000 years ago in an area that eventually became the landscape near Wray.
LEARN MORE
Ancient Colorado Lecture
Dr. Kirk Johnson will present a lecture about the origins of the Ancient Colorado paintings and how his role in other projects—such as the Museum’s Prehistoric Journey, Ancient Denvers, and Denver Basin Project—are all part of his ongoing quest to piece together the prehistory of Colorado’s familiar landscapes.
Thursday, August 24, 7 p.m.
Ricketson Auditorium
Denver Museum of Nature & Science
$12 member, $15 non-member
Ancient Colorado Art Exhibit Tour at the Colorado Convention Center
Join Dr. Kirk Johnson for an exclusive tour of the Ancient Colorado exhibit. He and artist Jan Vriesen collaborated on the creation of the 10 paintings.
Tuesday, September 26, 10 a.m.
Colorado Convention Center
$12 member, $15 non-member
Visit the Prehistoric Journey exhibition at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.
Check out the Ancient Denvers paintings in the Birds of the Americas Hall on Level 3. The companion book is for sale in the Museum Shop.
The popular book Prehistoric Journey is back in print! This beautifully illustrated book is the companion to the exhibition. It is for sale in the Museum Shop.
For ticket information, call the Denver Museum of Nature & Science at 303.322.7009.
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Many of the Museum’s educational programs and exhibits are made possible in part by generous funding from the citizens of the seven-county metro area through the Scientific & Cultural Facilities District (SCFD).
