Not realizing it at the time, 2014 - 2016, but this series represents our transitioning from Santa Monica, CA to Santa Fe, New Mexico. We traveled by car through the desert many times and thought how difficult early road trips must have been. Ed Ruscha's famous 26 Gas Stations represented a much rougher ride than we have today.
All these abandoned gas stations were found on various routes between both cities. None are the same that Ruscha documented, but I thought how interesting that what inspired him 50 years before was either torn down, re-purposed or left decaying in the desert like these and so many others we see along the way. They were once the vital link between the cities along roads that were then the main thoroughfares and now bypassed by newer, bigger freeways.
Photographed from different perspectives with each perspective printed on a different handmade papers and layered together with encaustic wax medium. Then marked with oil pastel. With the hope that all petrol gas stations will be a thing of the past during my lifetime. 30" x 40", framed in antique wood