To see what you can see. To discover what you would have missed. To avoid the maddening traffic and congestion of an Interstate highway. All are good enough reasons.

And sometimes, as in my recent drive through rural South Carolina over Christmas vacation, there will be a rare gem. There by the side of the road, tucked back among pines, I found this abandoned home. Those words are the stuff of storytelling. Why was it abandoned, and by whom? How long has it stood in this form? In what stages has it fallen apart? My crunching steps in the thick pine needles were the only sounds in that still place. Like most of the roads we travelled on this trip this one had very few cars and no trucks.

Houses are my artmaking focus this year. The simple shape of a rectangle plus a triangle for a roof contains lifetimes of memories and associations. The simplest drawing made by a child, showing a house with a little family beside it or in it, is rich with meaning. The outside of a house and the world it contains can be very different. And windows are wonderful points of entry from the outside to the life within.

I was stirred in m own memories standing in the quiet place by this house, this structure that used to be somebody’s home. My photos will be a way to remember, as well as a source of images to transfer to fabric and incorporate in my collaged work.

Our South-Carolina to Florida trip took at least three hours longer than the most direct driving route. For me, it was a good use of time.