The two highways.

Now that I've been the length of Route 66 and have gone about 2500k on the Trans Canada it's clear to me that these highways, although both defining features of the North American landscape, are very different. The Trans Canada is a pragmatic strip of asphalt that is about moving stuff vast distances between locations. It's efficient, and everything is contained within the enclosure of the vehicles eating up the kilometres. Route 66 is about place names, people, and the stories they tell. It's landscape changes quickly, and the communities that are scattered along it's windy path are just barely a ghost of what they once were. The one piece of the Trans Canada that reminds me of Route 66 is the Fraser Canyon in B.C. I lived there as a child in Boston Bar. This stretch of highway was bypassed about 30 years ago by the Coquihalla Highway that goes from Hope to Kamloops. This left the small communities along the old Trans Canada economically devastated. Yale, Boston Bar, Lytton, Spence's Bridge, are all just shadows of what they were when they serviced the travellers moving down the Number 1. Like the Interstate Highway in the States, the Coquihalla was, and is, about efficiency. There's no room for individual stories when it's all about the most expedient way to move stuff. One result of what I've learned is that the focus for me on the Trans Canada has shifted away from the mirror object and is more about the process, which is manifesting in a number of new series.


A new project from the refocus that has occurred on the Trans Canada:

16 images from the back of the van. 

Kamloops Daily News

The Kamloops Daily News ran a little piece about Seed Engine. Check it out here:


http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/article/20120726/KAMLOOPS0501/120729873/0/kamloops05/engine-of-experience-crisscrosses-continent&template=JQMArticle

The Saskatoon Pit Stop

Clint Neufeld's studio in Saskatoon. Great party!

The best campsite!

Ray's rat rod.

Jen Budney

Pinhole images from Route 66

Outside Clint's studio.

Mile 0 in Victoria to Canmore, Alberta.

Beginning at Mile 0 of the Trans Canada in Victoria we headed east with the project. Having completed Route 66 Seed Engine is starting to develop in new directions as we begin to make our way to Newfoundland. I'm starting to focus more on the process and less on the sculpture itself. We've become acutely aware that the project has many facets that haven't been explored yet.

Mile 0.

Yale B.C.

Jackass Mountain.

Kamloops Lake

Mike Youds from the Kamloops Daily News doing an interview with me.

Sorrento B.C.

Sorrento Beach.

Rogers Pass.

New animal crossing on the Trans Canada.

Canmore, Alberta.

The Commons

Thanks to the generosity of everybody at The Commons we held an event to mark the presence of Seed Engine in Vancouver. Thanks Lee, Eric, and Brooklyn for welcoming us.

North to Vancouver.

The trip North to Canada. The Golden Gate bridge was hidden by a fog bank.

Car garden north of San Francisco.

Last says LA.

Last day in LA and a wrap up of Route 66. We spent the day doing to the Museum of Contemporary Art where we saw a remarkable exhibition covering the history of land art. The visited with a friend at his studio and finished up at Santa Monica Pier with a ride on the ferris Wheel. It felt good to be at the end of Route 66 as we looked forward to the trek across Canada.

The plaque at the official end of Route 66. It's a bit hard to find because it's in a grass covered area near a foot path.

The unofficial end of Route 66 on Santa Monica Pier in the heart of the tourist congestion.

The Ferris Wheel and two views from the top.

Thomas Lawson outside his studio.