First Solo Road Trip Part 4. Grundy, VA

By the late afternoon I have more or less descended the mountain. I drive for several miles winding my way through deep valleys with small towns and villages which all sit precariously squashed up against the roadside, between cliff and rivers edge. Mining and Mill towns where every other house is either empty or derelict. Scary looking gas stations which I am worried about pulling over into with beat up, rusting trucks parked up in lines with wild looking bearded guys in dungarees sitting outside - barking dogs and peeling signs from the 60s advertising things no longer in existence. A few miles down the road I pull over to take photos and quickly attract the locals, who seem to drive out of no-where, pulling over and asking questions with their shocking, but actually quite friendly southern accents. They ask about my New Jersey number plates and lump England in with the rest of the world in their long musing loosely based outside the U.S. stories. They all think I am seriously lost and well off the beaten path and want to point me to the Interstate giving incoherent directions and don't understand my reluctance to use it. Confused when I explain what I am doing. I feel in no way threatened either, the fear being only in my mind, fed by movies and other horror stories. If anything they were nervous and a little frightened of me. I think that if I was in trouble or needed any assistance at all, they would have done anything for me to help in any way possible.

Running on Empty show moves to a new location

Buena Vista, VA

'Where' New York City

Holiday Handguns, Gun Show, KS

Tight-Rope Walker, Worlds of Fun, KS


My Running on Empty Exhibition has now moved to another location.

For the next two months, until the end of October, It will be showing at Dunn Bros coffeehouse 87th St and Metcalf Ave, across the street from Borders Book Store in Overland Park, KS.

I will also be the featured artist at B-Studio in December where I plan to Exhibit the Running on Empty series in full. Apx 80 images. This will be a part of the First Fridays event in the Crossroads District in downtown Kansas City, MO.

I will post more information about this Exhibition at a later date.

Front Royal, VA


Front Royal, VA


Front Royal, VA

First Solo Road Trip Part 3. Vesuvius, VA

Level with the town Roanoke I decide to descend the mountains and turn off at a tiny junction onto a tiny single lane road with thick forest either side of me. Hairy too and every tight bend is just like the last and it feels like I am driving the same 100 yards over and over again for hours - like on some broken record time loop - steep cliffs on one side and on the other deep ravines covered in the same endless dense forests layering away. My imagination goes haywire. On the way down I pass through a small village name 'Vesuvius' (like Pompeii volcano) which looks deserted and half reclaimed by the forest. Every building and telegraph pole and signpost, dripping in luscious vines. Further on I pass a homestead which I want to photograph, but am nervous about it. The house is hidden in the trees up a winding dirt track. The ground littered with garbage, broken down and rotting cars and other nameless rusting farm machinery, vine covered garden furniture, stained tarps and dozens of faded, chipped, peeling or decapitated religious icons, some standing twice man height litter the grounds. It reminds me of the home of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre family, complete with loud and spluttering nearly failing generator. I pull over and wait a few moments taking it all in - looking up the track for the house, which is difficult to make out - a dilapidated single story place almost completely covered in vines. The windows are dull and dirty with grime and an old sorry looking leather couch sits on the paint peeled porch outside with a hole filled red blanket thrown over its back. I wonder if in fact the house is empty, but the sputtering generator says otherwise. I notice too that a thin wisp of smoke is coming from the chimney. I really want to photograph the place, but when I open the car door to get out two large sounding dogs suddenly start barking viciously so I decide against it and drive away with a pounding heart, telling myself that something's are better only written about..