Painting Cathedral Rock

Experimental film/video installation, 2017, TRT: 3:51 mins (fine cut)

Mel Day, Painting Cathedral Rock (Poo-sen’a-chu-ka), Video Installation with sound (TRT: 3:06), 2016-

Painting Cathedral Rock (Poo-sen’a-chu-ka) is a site-specific video, performance, and painting work exploring the unstable edges of vision, cinematic spectacle, belief, invisibility, and climate change. The first part depicts the artist washing and cleaning what is eventually revealed to be a chapel altar window centered squarely on the iconic view of Cathedral Rock in Sedona, Arizona—a sacred Indigenous site and vortex destination. The second part depicts the artist painting the window entirely with a mix of the red earth from the surrounding landscape, both concealing and revealing the landscape and dimming the light within the chapel. 

Painting Cathedral Rock , video still, 2016

Produced with the support of the Sedona Artist Residency, Sedona Arts Center and Verde Valley School; Filmed at the Gretchen Warren Interfaith Chapel, Verde Valley School, Arizona.

Credits:
Directed, performed, and edited by Mel Day
Video Editing Assistance: Justin Edwards
Cinematography & Sound: James Kelley for Shot by Ryan

Thanks to the support of: Melissa Wyman, organizer of Sedona AIR Bay Area group and AIR (Michael Namkung, Amanda Curreri, Llewelynn Fletcher, Lukaza Brandman-Verrisimo, Grace Rosario Perkins, José Luis Iñiguez, Cara Levine, Weston Teruya, Melissa Wyman, Mel Day)

Carol Holyoake, Manager, Sedona Arts Center
Eric Holowacz, Excecutive Director, Sedona Arts Center
Paul Amadio, Head of Verde Valley School
Sedona Arts Center
Verde Valley School

December 2: Preview event
December 3rd, Public Opening (11-5pm)

Cubberley Artist Studio Program
4000 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto
STUDIO E7

San Jose Museum of Art “Film Art / Art Film Fest”
Nov. 7th, 2025