On a Sunday morning, November 20, 2022, I drove to Wupatki National Monument, about twenty minutes north of Flagstaff, to visit the current artists-in-residence, photographer Michael Collier and writer Rose Houk. Piles of coyote scat lay along the snow-dusted road to the park’s historic Rock House. The road was not just to be crossed, but clearly a path this animal used. I envisioned collecting coyote scat as part of my residency that would be scheduled for the following year, but I didn’t envision it being a material I would end up using for my pop-up exhibit in the garage of the Rock House almost two years later. 

On July 5, 2024, my exhibition, Their Largeness Passes Through Me, opened at the HeArt Box in downtown Flagstaff. It included a new place-based, site-specific installation entitled re-Creation. This exhibit was originally going to coincide with my pop-up exhibit at Wupatki National Monument scheduled for July 6 & 7, both shows working together. re-Creation was a last-minute design. Because of its weight, I was asked to remove the 10’ long x 30” diameter log that had been cut into twenty slices. This meant I needed to design a new installation and install it all within one week before the exhibit’s opening. re-Creation was born.

Three months later, Coyote Makes the World was given a similar birth. On Monday, September 23, I loaded the pickup with black volcanic cinders from the national forest outside Wupatki and drove to the garage where I spread the ignus rock out onto the floor. I then set a yellow rectangle of pine pollen in the middle of the bed. I did not like it. The next morning when I woke up, a new design unfolded. Coyote Makes the World was born. 

Six months earlier, on April 3, I had coffee with the Flagstaff Area Monuments’ artist-in-residence coordinator, Richard Ullmann, to discuss my installation inside the garage. Given his invitation to create an installation as part of Wupatki’s 100-year anniversary, I posed the idea of doing something even more exciting and challenging than my original design. My new desire was to bring in a black Steinway grand piano and have a pianist perform as part of the installation. Richard was ecstatic and promised that the park service would help pay for the piano’s cartage. 

I now had to find a piano.

Five days later, I met with the NAU Kitt School of Music Director to discuss borrowing a Steinway grand piano for my installation. NAU is a Steinway school. I thought that they might have an older piano that they would be willing to loan. But they didn’t. A week later, I called Janice ChenJu Chiang to see if she might be interested in performing as part of my installation. Janice and I had previously collaborated as part of our installation/performance, Composition for Forests (2016). My desire was to work with her again before she moved back to Taiwan, and I knew that she would only want to perform on a Steinway. She enthusiastically accepted and then suggested I contact Steinway & Sons directly.

On Friday, April 26, I emailed the manager of Steinway & Sons in Scottsdale. I shared with him my proposal to bring a piano into the Rock House garage, where its rustic brown ponderosa logs would juxtapose with a small black shiny piano. My hope was that Steinway would be interested in being a part of this unique art event and Wupatki’s 100^th anniversary. The next day, the manager wrote back, “Thank you so much for your note. Good to know that you are putting together such a fantastic event up in the painted desert. I am sorry to report that we are not renting out anything smaller than a model B these days, which is our 7-footer. Would you have any use for something like that?”

He then wrote, “our model B is an amazing piano that will be able to project further, and the tones/action are going to be a treat for Janice. In terms of how this works, I would like to introduce you to the head of our concert and artist department. I have cc’d him on this email.” 

With that, we moved forward. For the next four months, what at times seemed like the impossible became possible. On September 28, Convergence opened in the historic Rock House garage. It included the new installation, Coyote Makes the World.