Men on Boats is a retelling of the 1869 Colorado River expedition led by John Wesley Powell. It deals with the spirit of adventure that is so common in tales of historic exploration, but also with the mistreatment and erasure of the indigenous people, who already knew this river well. I wanted this design to evoke the romanticized art of the Grand Canyon, with its famous vibrant colors and a painterly texture, in a way that matches the excitement of the better parts of the exploration, and also juxtaposes some of its darker aspects. The set consists of two raised platforms of land with a ‘river’ running between them, two sets of traveling rock walls that can move in and out to provide a wider or narrower passage, and painted drops upstage to support the all-encompassing nature of canyon travel. This design was done in Set 3 in 2023.