Arkansas

Construction has begun on what will be the largest shopping mall in the region.  (upper left corner)

Arizona

Airport runway building is approved despite concerns over Clean Air Act violations.  (center left edge)

Alaska

Debate continues over oil drilling in the National Wildlife Refuge.  (upper left corner)

Alabama

The state demands a solution to sewage spills in Pritchard.  (lower left corner) 

About This Blog

Last year I ran my woodcut workshop a few times at the Belmar Arts Council, and each time I showed my large 2003 print A New Year for America as an example of my work. (click the above photo to enlarge)  I had done a number of print series before this piece, anywhere from dozens to hundreds of related prints in each.   I was considering doing a 50 print series about the individual states, but then got the idea to make one large piece instead.  I collected news stories from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and a few national stories, all from a few weeks before and after that year's New Year's Day.  Then I came up with ways to visualize them and arranged them to make a single landscape.  I like to think of it as a portrait of America.

Whenever I put this piece on display, in an exhibition or in workshops as mentioned above, this usually leads to curiosity about how specific states are represented in the image.  During one such discussion last year, I decided it might be useful to to set up a blog site that would detail this information.  The number of stories told (fifty states, Washington DC, and a few national stories) makes this ideal for a once a week blog, telling the story I chose to depict for each state.  So in this new year I'm starting this blog, and will finish it just before 2014.  The plan is to put up a new state (I'll go in alphabetical order) every Sunday, with a detail photo of that part of the print, and an indication of where within the print that detail can be found.  We'll start with Alabama tomorrow.