March 20, 2011 — Ghost Town

I have visited ruins all over Europe and throughout the Southwest U.S. But there is something different about ghost towns. Rhyolite (near Death Valley just over the Nevada State Line) and Bodie (on the edge of California north of Mono Lake) are my two favorites. I first visited Rhyolite over 10 years ago and have been going back every time I am nearby. I was just back in Rhyolite a month ago. I look and keep telling myself there is less and less of the old Cook Bank every time I go. The ruin is even fenced off for safety now. When I returned home, I compared old photos I took a few years ago and was able to confirm the ongoing decay.

The history surrounding ghost towns is something I find compelling. I attribute it to their stories of rapid expansion and near sudden demise. How so much could happen in a place and draw so many people in. How a town grew with a sense of permanency only to be abandoned a decade or so later. Perhaps it is because I live in one of those towns that started as a boom town. San Francisco has also survived its series of ups and downs and calamities. But our setting,on a beautiful, and conveniently located, bay has made us always stick around and, when necessary, rebuild.

Now I see another road trip to Bodie in my future.

February 28, 2011- Black and White

It feels as if black and white photography has gone full circle and returned to the realm of artists. Digital photography has eliminated the color snapshot. The black and white snapshot all but disappeared during the 1970’s. There was a brief period when it was still less expensive to have black and white film developed, but by the 1980’s the average consumer started paying more for film and development of black and white.

I have an old photo album of my grandmothers that spans about 20 years from the 1930’s to 1950’s. It starts with a period of teenage photos and ends when my own mother was about 10 years old. The album acts as a great timepiece of popular fashion and car culture. It also spans about 20 years in consumer photography. Every few years a new camera was purchased with a new type of film and a new style of printing. Ironically these old black and white photos have held up remarkably well. Their condition is great. The color snapshots and polaroids of my own childhood have faded and discolored.

I used to experiment with 35mm black and white photography but never even came close to learning what I was doing. I never took that class and developed my own film. This morning I found these ten year old photos from my first trip to Death Valley and mixed them in with one my grandmother took in 1937 (so the date says). Now I have to sort through the hundreds of digital images taken last week in the desert.

February 25, 2011 – Bottle House

I can’t be within 100 miles of Rhyolite without making a visit to one of my favorite ghost towns. One of the highlights is Tom Kelly’s Bottle House. Built in 1906 with mortar and bottles, mostly beer bottles, instead of bricks. I am pleased that some effort is really being put in to preserving the structure. It really encompasses so many things I love in my own art – repurposing and recycling and loosely structured grid-like patterns with circles. And it sparkles out there in the desert.

Sadly, the old caretaker passed away about a year ago. He was right out of central casting as the gold miner with the big bushy beard. You’d barely be out of your car and he’d appear out of nowhere and begin to tell you the history of the house, etc.

This piece is more or less a study for some upcoming bottle house paintings.

February 23, 2011 - Mosaic Canyon

Mosaic Canyon is a calming place. The crowd was particularly small today. Mosaic Canyon is rarely what one would call "crowded." The canyon has been washed and scoured by millennia of flash floods. There are places where veins of marble along the canyon wall have been polished into smooth waves. As one hikes, you make a few turns up into the canyon and it becomes quiet and still. Today was a cool winter day and the rock walls were cold in the shadows until you reached a higher point where the sun was still warming the canyon late in the afternoon.

Over the years I have found some unique spots in the desert. The energy is different and special in these magical places. Mosaic Canyon is one of those places. Don't ask me to explain why, it's just one of those things you know.

February 22, 2011 - Below Sea Level

Today’s experiment - Can I make art below sea level? 

Yes, I did. At 282 feet below sea level, salt encrusted, at Badwater in Death Valley. On the road and it's time to enjoy the desert. I can write when I get home in San Francisco.

Update: August 2026

All my pieces are protected with a non-toxic, water-based, acrylic varnish.  After 15 years, I discovered this one was yellowing. I assume it is a long-term reaction caused by the minerals at the bottom of Death Valley.

January 8, 2011 – Tactile Art

When we go look at art and galleries we sometimes have to control our impulses to touch the work. It’s not always easy, and we’ve all probably seen someone break the rules and touch the art. While I wouldn’t want people just pawing my work either, I do sympathize. I like finishing my map pieces with a thick coat of acrylic varnish, which gives them a good deal of protection. I also like to make some pieces that are just meant to be touched. One medium I haven’t used in a while is sandpaper. Not sandpaper as a tool, which I use at times, but sandpaper as part of the work.

This cold, gloomy winter weather is making me think about a winter trip to Death Valley. I usually go every year. The rocks, the layers, the canyons all inspire my work. I am ready for the big ride and a few days of taking photos to paint from.