Editing a photo in prep for creating

 I decided to work on the composition for the recycle show before creating a pattern.

The theme is once upon a time for the show next April. I’m doing the streetcar image that I call the last journey.

Here’s the image.

I decided to edit out the streetcars that you can barely see. This is what I get as the image after that. Still editing to do when I make the pattern to work from and while I create the piece in plastic bags. I’m excited to start working on it. Visually creating those textures and rust will be interesting especially in plastic. 

The Last Journey

Once upon a time, these streetcars were filled with people going places. Over the years they fell into disrepair and now sit quietly on decaying tracks.

I grew up in Pittsburgh and rode streetcars to school, to art classes, and into the city. They carry many memories for me—of places I went, things I saw, and a time that is now gone. They are my once upon a time.

I chose to make this piece from discarded plastic bags because, unlike the streetcars of my childhood, plastic does not fade into memory or quietly disappear. It remains. By using this stubborn, leftover material to portray something I remember with affection, the work brings together two very different remnants of the past: one cherished, the other an enduring consequence of what we leave behind.

Thanks for reading.

Chris