“The Maker of Peace”

Tucked away in protected rock shelters above the Lower Pecos River lie the vestiges of an ancient American Culture of primitive people who occupied caves and began painting around 3500-3000 B.C., mysteriously vanishing around 1000 A.D. The images they created with mixtures of mineral pigments, charcoal and possibly blood and animal fat suggest an interesting connection with the sacred ceremonies of these early tribesmen. Animals and other intriguing forms with and without faces, believed to have been the artwork of shamans, embellish the cave walls in stunning and mystical silence. One can only speculate upon their many symbolic meanings.

These prehistoric designs, along with tools of flint, bone and wood, stool and yucca weavings, and some skeletal remains are all that is left of the extinct inhabitants of the Lower Pecos region. For Bill Worrell, former university professor of art, this discovery was impressive and powerful—an experience that would forever change the direction and style of his work. “I was on fire with inspiration and spent the next several years studying and developing a style that would express my feelings and my emotions—or at least part of them-about the ancient art of the bygone peoples of the Lower Pecos River and the Middle Rio Grande, on the border of what is now Texas and Mexico.” The inspiration led to writing, then to drawing and finally to sculpting.