People chuckled at the sign every day--not the parents, they just clasped their children tighter--but the rest. They never knew: the danger wasn't that the water was deep, but that it was now occupied.
Jim drove--loved--trollies. When the city started thinking about liability for the no-longer-pedestrian, he knew the new orange signs splattered with caution were new allies in his quest for preservation.
"I promise! Never again!" But she just walked away. He took out a knife and starting carving an unheard argument, permanent evidence of something already gone.
It wasn't even working anymore, but more trekked through then would have killed to leave decades before. So much fame. He couldn't resist staining it with the memory of his grandfather, Jacob Nighthawk, who was innocent.
Artist's Statement
When we were assigned this project, I really started to think about words, and how so few must stretch to cover a lot of background, and meaning. This led me to think about some of the most public words we see, usually very succinct, and very anonymous. I wanted to create stories showing some background behind the words we see in the world everyday, about how these words that we usually brush off or dismiss as unimportant might be just the opposite for the people who write them or rely on them or know why they were written. Words can be powerful, and I think we often take them for granted, especially when it's a sign that we only want to get the most basic information from, or graffiti that might just annoy us. So I ended up gathering pictures I'd taken of words that caught my attention throughout some of my trips in the last few years, because words have always interested me--even when they annoy or puzzle me. For example, I've always been a little exasperated with some of the safety signs that are so ubiquitous these days. They often seem quite obvious, even condescending. So I wanted to think of better reasons for them, or people who appreciated them, almost as an antidote to my annoyance.
My first two photos and stories came from that. I've had a little more mixed response to graffiti. I don't like the destruction of property, public or private, and I really hate it when it's just to write something stupid that I've felt I've wasted my life reading, but I really value free expression and the power of words as potentially therapeutic, as it seems some people use graffiti for. When it comes to love graffiti, I always notice it with a touch of irony, wondering how many of these relationships fell through, and yet this one permanent mark remains. The tiny story I made to go with this picture played on that irony, with the carving coming after the relationship had already ended. Next, in another bit of irony, I thought the Treasure Island sign was awesome, when I first saw it; the island, not so much, just bare sand and rock. It was named, though, for historical fairs that took place on it, that were apparently important enough to warrant the creation, let alone the christening, of this island. I wanted that tiny story to reflect on reminiscence, but also how sometimes even official government signs can be deceiving. The last photo was my favorite, and really helped me flesh out my original idea: it's a picture of Alcatraz, and the graffiti seemed so disparate from what we normally associate with Alcatraz. It also seemed clear to me that the artist/vandal (take your pick) must have been quite determined to get those words up there, since they're large, and high up, and on a government building that's probably more guarded than most. It made me wonder why he or she felt so strongly, made me think of possible reasons. I'm still curious, honestly, and I think that curiosity, more than anything else, made me choose this theme for this project: speculating on the motives behind the words we show to the world.
I was inspired by the reading this week to look at things from a different perspective; that's what struck me most about the tiny stories we read. Their main goal, it seemed, was to make you see the world a little differently in as few words as possible. I've actually read a book of tiny stories, one of the six word memoir books, the one for teens actually, and it seemed like the writers had similar purpose in that book, only the perspective and essence they were trying to encompass was their own. It was almost dizzying for me, reading that book, because there are so many people in there, it was practically crowded. Drawing on both these readings, I wanted to make my stories explore vastly different perspectives, so while they shared a commonality of theme and subject, they went at it in different ways and from different lives.
My first two photos and stories came from that. I've had a little more mixed response to graffiti. I don't like the destruction of property, public or private, and I really hate it when it's just to write something stupid that I've felt I've wasted my life reading, but I really value free expression and the power of words as potentially therapeutic, as it seems some people use graffiti for. When it comes to love graffiti, I always notice it with a touch of irony, wondering how many of these relationships fell through, and yet this one permanent mark remains. The tiny story I made to go with this picture played on that irony, with the carving coming after the relationship had already ended. Next, in another bit of irony, I thought the Treasure Island sign was awesome, when I first saw it; the island, not so much, just bare sand and rock. It was named, though, for historical fairs that took place on it, that were apparently important enough to warrant the creation, let alone the christening, of this island. I wanted that tiny story to reflect on reminiscence, but also how sometimes even official government signs can be deceiving. The last photo was my favorite, and really helped me flesh out my original idea: it's a picture of Alcatraz, and the graffiti seemed so disparate from what we normally associate with Alcatraz. It also seemed clear to me that the artist/vandal (take your pick) must have been quite determined to get those words up there, since they're large, and high up, and on a government building that's probably more guarded than most. It made me wonder why he or she felt so strongly, made me think of possible reasons. I'm still curious, honestly, and I think that curiosity, more than anything else, made me choose this theme for this project: speculating on the motives behind the words we show to the world.
I was inspired by the reading this week to look at things from a different perspective; that's what struck me most about the tiny stories we read. Their main goal, it seemed, was to make you see the world a little differently in as few words as possible. I've actually read a book of tiny stories, one of the six word memoir books, the one for teens actually, and it seemed like the writers had similar purpose in that book, only the perspective and essence they were trying to encompass was their own. It was almost dizzying for me, reading that book, because there are so many people in there, it was practically crowded. Drawing on both these readings, I wanted to make my stories explore vastly different perspectives, so while they shared a commonality of theme and subject, they went at it in different ways and from different lives.
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