My love of the urban landscape, especially that of San Francisco, moved me onto the freeway—my studio away from home. Having lost a studio that gave me a fixed vantage point on the City, I chose a moving one—my car.
Freeway I—To the City, 1992
Charcoal on paper, 27.5 x 39.5 in.
Freeway 4—Con/Curve, 1992,
Charcoal on paper, 27.5 x 39.5 in.
I was interested in the city itself, its hills and valleys that allow fog and sun and shadow to stretch and play with space. I love the changes of scale that can be embraced in an eye's sweep: large buildings that pop up and push against the skyline, cutting through the staccato of smaller, more distant ones. And I love the freeway, the large urban sculpture that laces the city together.
I began drawing and photographing while stuck in traffic jams or moving slowly, or, for a little more ease and safety, with others driving. I ended up with a quantity of notebooks full of rough, speedy drawings. From those initial sketches I worked on several generations of freeway pictures over the course of time, some of which are displayed here.
Though my initial interest was the city, it soon became apparent that what I was drawing was the freeway itself, with the city and its buildings as both background and onlookers to a stage where the cars are actors. The freeway becomes a ribbon of movement bounded by static, yet distorted, buildings. One was now on the freeway and in the midst of speed itself.