New Directions

Above is A Sense of Loss (working) and below that Companions. Both are for the next showing. As usual I figure out the what I'm doing for a show with very little time to do it. I'm glad to see that nothing has changed.

The work for this show has diverged a little from my normal urban environments to I guess the remains of small outposts of urbanity in the middle of nowhere. I'm not sure of the overall theme of this body of work and initially I thought it was a portrait of "boom and bust". Now that I'm further into the works I think it's actually more of a portrait of our fragility as human beings. A gas station in the middle of nowhere closes and in no time at all it becomes and instant ruin. It's as if these buildings within a very short time of being uninhabited become uninhabitable empty shells that are quickly decimated by nature and vandals.

Yesterday, I drove up to I-40 and took photos of some sites between Flagstaff and Winslow.  I was struck with the eery and somewhat foreboding feeling that fills you when exploring these ruins.  There is this uncanny feeling of almost voyeurism by being there and even that doesn't fully describe the feeling.  Of course by being there you are ignoring no trespassing signs in some cases, but the I've had the same feeling when visiting ancient ruin sites within national and state parks, so it's something different. I guess these sites are haunted and maybe that's the draw.  It's the essence of individuals from the past that still inhabit these places that you've chosen to pay an unsolicited visit to.