La Guaira

Back in 1993 I spent a few days in the Venezuelan coastal town of La Guaira (Why? Long story). It being my first real international travel experience, I soon discovered wandering around with an expensive camera around your neck attracts a lot of attention. In what would later become a powerful lesson for me, I walked back into the town square with nothing but a sketchbook and a pencil. While drawing the scene below, two young boys—probably 10 years old—kept cautiously inching up to me to see what I was doing, ultimately sitting next to me and commenting to each other as I sketched. I didn’t know Spanish and they didn’t know English, but it was all smiles and laughs as we tried to communicate over those 20 minutes. Once done, I had them sign their names on the drawing before shaking their hands and watching them go on playing in the park.

Following last week’s earthquakes, the town was flattened. My thoughts immediately turned back to that day in the square with the hope that Yonari and Yohan—who would now be in their 40s—are okay.

“See more”

Since signing up for NextDoor to help locate the home of a lost cat a few years ago, my email inbox is now jammed daily with NextDoor posts. While the sheer volume can be annoying, I find their truncated opening lines often make great teasers for some unwritten novel. Click through some favorites below:

June in Italy

Some images taken during a month spent in central Italy in June of 2022.

Garage Collage

Collage made up of items—newspapers, calendars, whiskey bottles—found in the walls of our old garage during its recent demolition.

Origami

Deer folded from my dad’s old hunting licenses I’d found in the basement yesterday.

Lumberyard Series

Click to view series

Fingerle Lumber Company had been in business since 1931, supplying builders with the basic materials found in many Ann Arbor homes. For 20 years, I walked past the site every day on my way to and from work, the yard bustling with forklifts hauling stacks of 2x4s and sheets of plywood. Since the sale of the property in 2018, it became a ghost town in the middle of the city, its long metal sheds eerily quiet and empty. Beyond documenting the remnants of a once venerable business, much like a blueprint, these photos are two dimensional representations of three dimensional spaces meant to reflect a builder's sense of structure through form, shape, and shadow.