The Electric Etch A Sketch

Utilitarian as aesthetic matter...

The perpendicular and horizontal lines that cross the landscape of the sky are omnipresent whether or not the ground beneath them is occupied by humans. Over the decades many of these lines have been buried but still just about everywhere you travel you see poles and lines. They serve as the conduit primarily for electricity which is the foundation of the other technologies of modern life, wireline telephone, cable television and the internet.

There are very few of us that live in contemporary society that would like to live without electricity and at least one of the other services these lines carry. Even wireless is transported at some point through the path of a physical line. Some people view them as marring the landscape, some are oblivious to them and some of us see them as markings on the panorama of state-of-the-art life. We are fascinated by what they transmit as well as viewing them as sketch marks to be recorded and developed into our creative vision of what the world around us looks like. They have a useful mission and utilitarian purpose as well as serving as outlines for images to the creative mind.

The crisscrossing of utility lines, utility poles, streets and traffic lights, rail lines, medians that divide them, sidewalks and shoulders that define them are commonplace but not ordinary due to purpose. They all have function and are the underpinnings of the very civilization we often taken for granted and sometimes curse. Every facet of twenty-first century living in some way or another is dependent upon them. The allure that appeals to me is two-fold. I am fascinated by the intertwining networks that somehow connect to make it all work and the angles and irregularities of the lines and shapes that are like borders on maps in the sky around us. They evoke images for me to record with a camera and then turn into my own work of my creativity.