last weekend on the high plains…

“The Great Plains were immense enough to inspire the grandest, most foolish of dreams—but they were also vast enough that no one could ever explore every corner.”
― Melanie Benjamin, The Children’s Blizzard

PHOTOS:

  1. The farm where my mother and uncle grew up—Wakonda, South Dakota. The house is gone, but the barn and yard were so familiar to me. I still remember the sound of the screen door, and the radio on top of the fridge relaying the hourly farm reports on WNAX.
  2. Somewhere northeast of Burke, South Dakota last Saturday.
  3. Meckling, South Dakota (The Hay Capital of the World) & Toby’s Lounge, home of their very famous and delicious broasted chicken. A joint I frequented as a kid with my Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Leonard.
  4. Leaving Burke last Monday.
  5. An abandoned car somewhere in Clay County.
  6. Heading downtown—Burke, South Dakota.
  7. A creek east of Burke.
  8. Somewhere west of Beresford.
  9. I love rainy road trips, I was listening to Zach Bryan’s, This Road I KnowI’m on this road…
    And I don’t know where I am, but I know exactly where I am

Here’s to spring and road trips wherever you find yourself.

ghosts & ruins…

The spark for this series was the moment I noticed that a photo of the stairwell in my home fit with an image from an abandoned farmhouse I shot in South Dakota a few years ago. Seeing the old and new images just hit me about the sense of time and place we all possess. One day perhaps our stairwell will be photographed as ruins.

The stories that ruins of all types whisper to me about history, humanity, grit, and heartache have sparked my interest and been a muse to me since I was a child.

I love the way you can feel the soul of old houses and the area surrounding the properties. I just had to put myself in these places again—PHOTOSHOP allowed me to make this happen.

My daughter, Willa’s photographic eye provided the theatrical images of me taken on Halloween in 2021. My costume goal was: the ghost of a silent film star. I’m not often wearing a gown, or pearls, and sipping champagne. Well, not nearly often enough actually.

Whoever she is, she’s got a story to tell, I just don’t know quite what it is yet.

ruins: the remains of something destroyed

—Merriam Webster

Thank you, photographers, Willa, Mana, and the people who once inhabited this beautiful South Dakota farmhouse. If only the walls could truly talk.

Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.  —Andy Warhol