Morning Meditation

Morning Meditation

Study

Morning Meditation

Morning Meditation

Scree Study

During Christmas holiday 2012, I asked Facebook friends their favorite word. My friends came through with a list of over 50 words. Scree, a new word to me listed by John L. Havekamp, grabbed my attention. The word shifts my mind to a bird screaming, but it's meaning has nothing to do with a screaming bird. My first encounter with the definition of this word was as a child walking around Shenandoah Lake, trying not to slip on the unstable ground.

Scree- an accumulation of loose stones or rocky debris lying on a slope or at the base of a hill or cliff.

Verisimilitude

The appearance of being true or real.

Verisimilitude Study no. 1

Exhibition and Artist Talk

Keep Out

Maryland, 7:57:14PM, Summer 2012, Capitol Limited

Freeway

California, 6:43:46AM, Summer 2012, Southwest Chief

Over the past several years I’ve been riding trains and photographing the landscape. This summer I fulfilled a dream by traveling across the country creating photographs and videos.  Passenger, the first exhibition of the project, is on display at ChromaProjects Art Laboratory in Charlottesville.  It features eleven new images plus a video from my journey.  I will give an artist talk October 17 at 7 p.m. in the Dickinson Theater at Piedmont Virginia Community College.

 My exhibition space at Chroma- what used to be the cooler in the old florist’s shop- is wonderful. Because it’s long and narrow, even a little crowded, it reminds me of the trains that inspired my work. Deborah McLeod is the gallery owner and her husband Rob assists in the operation of the space.  The exhibition is up until October 27.

 

Sketch - Rainy Sunday

 

My exhibit, Passenger, opened Friday night. It was a good time, more on that later. Today, I am cleaning and thinking of thoughtful spaces.

Waking Up in California

We boarded the Southwest Chief at 10:15PM in Flagstaff, AZ, an hour and a half late. The landscape was dark and I would not make my first photograph until 4:46AM the following morning. On this morning the train whistle woke me, often this means we're approaching a road or town. I peaked out the window to see lights in the distance, lots of lights that extended high above the horizon.  Feeling a wave of excitement, I slid out of bed, this was more than a small town or a railroad crossing. I picked up my camera and sat in my seat waiting patiently as light emerged from the darkness.

Once the massive plant passed, I returned to the rhythm of watching patterns unfold as the landscape became littered with structures.  We passed distribution centers, new construction, storage facilities, and miles of infrastructure that sustain daily existence.  Arriving in Los Angeles was a thrill, it was our destination, we successfully crossed the country.

California, 5:31:06AM, Summer 2012

California, 5:47:42AM, Summer 2012

California, 6:39:26AM, Summer 2012

California, 7:01:54AM, Summer 2012

California, 7:17:42AM, Summer 2012

California, 8:28:05AM, Summer 2012

California, 8:30:19AM, Summer 2012

California, 8:32:12AM, Summer 2012

The Southwest Chief

The Southwest Chief bolted out of Chicago determined to maintain it's schedule.  We passed the corn festival, the Mississippi River, wind turbines, processing facilities, soy, corn, horses, cows, miles of desert and lots of freight cars, LOTS.  Then we stopped. We sat in the dining car wondering why were stopped, freight passed but we remained still. While eating dessert in the desert we were informed the train would be heading back to Albuquerque. Another train full of empty coal cars had derailed ahead of us.  At 9PM, the time we were to arrive in Flagstaff, AZ, we loaded a bus for a 6 hour bus trip to our destination.  Today we board for Los Angeles. The Southwest Chief runs only once a day, so we depart in the dark and approach Los Angeles during the sunrise.  Wish us luck.

Illinois

Missouri

Kansas City

Kansas

New Mexico