Letters at Rest

Retired Sweetheart Chapel

No more buzzing, no more Elvis, no more I do's.

Desert Highway Near Barstow

The Neon Graveyard

After years of hoping to arrive there, we finally find our way to the site where mighty Vegas neon giants lay to rest, and it is on a day when a photography workshop is renting the entire location! Still, the views we snuck through and above the tattered fences were stunning. After a period of unseasonably cold Vegas weather, today was hot and dusty, with a blinding flattening light, and the seedy surroundings of the Neon "Boneyard" served to amplify the already surreal nature of the place. Witnessing these giant steel and wire and tube structures as they lay silent and faded on the desert ground was every bit as moving as I had hoped.

Baker, California

Home of the world's largest thermometer. Found this rusted-out, star-topped gem during our drive along the edge of the Mojave Desert this week.

Sticky Goodness

I Heart Produce Stickers. I started creating this colorful produce sticker collage last summer, after wanting to make art from them for years. I keep my fingers crossed that the recent momentum behind the invention of fruit tattoos loses steam. The shift in this technology would mark the demise of yet another artistic approach to food packaging.

The Impala Family

Out here in Golden Mountain live my neighbors, The Impala Family. The male species of this kinship group possess five of these circa late 1970s-early 1980s Chevy babies (similar to the orangey-salmon model my dad owned during this same decade), in a rainbow of colors, including white, light blue, brown, and this particular standout, a DIY white-maroon hybrid. When parked on our street, they stretch out to take up almost half the block. Let me repeat: Five Chevy Impalas. During chillier mornings, when we leave for work at about the same time, I observe the ritual of one of the Impala Sons: he'll start up one the five (but how does he choose?), leave the keys in the ignition with the engine humming, and return indoors for an entended period of time. Many car fanatics say that Chevy introduced the first muscle car when it rolled out the early-era, powerfully-endowed Impala model. And nothing beats the classic 1970s Impala cop car--a la Hill Street Blues--a ubiquitous sight throughout the streets of urban America. This conversation is just getting started...Stay tuned for some classic Impala Family bumper sticker messages!