Salvage

Last summer an EF2 tornado touched down in the northern part of Dodgeville - about 10 miles from where I live now. Many homes and farms along highway ZZ were damaged-barns leveled, forests of trees flatten in the blink of an eye.

Yesterday, I visited one such farm. The house and two of the outbuildings were completely unharmed. Looking at them today- you would have no idea that a tornado swept through 12 months ago. But two other barns, only 100 feet away were flatten. The owner is preparing to move and sell her property, but she heard I work with barn board, she invited me to come up and salvage materials for my next project.

So I donned my jeans, workbooks and gloves and when up to her place to do some, very careful digging....











I'm really excited about these materials -  the wood is noticeably different than the boards I used in Vermont. Some of the boards have chipped red or white paint on them, several have knot holes and a quite a few have nail heads that will be close to impossible to remove. I'm planning on leveraging these new characteristics. This difference is going to have an interesting effect on the next series of prints that I plan to do.


I have my work cut out for me today- I need to unload them, wash and sand them before I can even think about working on them. That part is the dirty business, thank god we have a nice cool breeze today- otherwise wearing all my protective gear will be very hot.

I'll keep you posted on how it all turns out.

Until next time- Stay creative!