Land Drawings ©2009 - 2011

The men at the quarry would turn their heads, shrug their shoulders and laugh (at my expense) whenever I arrived to cart off another truckload of pulverized limestone. Trying to explain my purpose would have come off as too presumptuous, so I always mentioned that I “just needed it” for building sculpture.  In reality, I felt hard pressed to discover another medium that possessed the intrinsic character of “lived time”.  Eventually, I began to toss the fragments, broken pieces and chips into the truck.   A pallet of red rock caught my attention one day.  I asked where it was from.  “Pecos, Texas”.  I learned that the owner closed the quarry, causing a hellacious problem for the reconstruction of the Bexar County Courthouse in San Antonio.  I was told that people were hoarding the stone.   So I packed up the truck and headed west.

I drive through the openness of the West Texas landscape.  I drift off into the sky, the cattle, the dry riverbeds.  I look for rocks.  I stop.  I pick up a piece of West Texas, gently place it in the truck and drive on.  The stories begin in the car as the miles pass by.  Back in the studio, I look over my ever-expanding piles of the Texas landscape.  I pick up a rock and grab the chipping hammer.