October 22, 2011 – Bodie Light

Earlier this month I was in one of my favorite California cities — Bodie, California. Okay, Bodie might not qualify as a city anymore, but there was a time when this was California’s Third Largest. Nowadays Bodie is a remote and very well preserved ghost town high up in the Eastern Sierra. This last visit was the day before the first winter storm came in. The autumn light was stunning. And while I love photographing Bodie, my real dream is to be an artist in residence up there for a spell so I could paint those old buildings day after day.

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 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.