Linda Schele’s cathartic visit to Palenque, Mexico in 1970 was transformative for her. She fell in love with the ancient ruins, the forest surrounding it, the people of Palenque and with the art and architecture of the site. She spent the next two years obsessively studying its architecture and its jungle, drawing the buildings and creating oil paintings of its rich foliage. I will share some of those paintings and drawings during the presentation. She was also teaching studio art at the University of South Alabama during that time and began a habit of returning to Palenque on scheduled breaks from her teaching job, bringing two to three art students with her on each trip. During her third year of study at the site, she became enamored with Palenque’s iconography and with the mysterious inscriptions as seen in its stone carvings which culminated in her participation in the First Palenque Roundtable organized by Merle Greene Robertson in 1973. This is the story of Linda’s awakening to the ancient Maya, to art history and to Maya epigraphy.