Second Post.

Art can found anywhere and everywhere. After reading this first chapter in Seeing and Writing, Some friends and I went south of Utah lake to shoot some guns. As we were driving through the rural areas near West Mountain, I began to really observe my surroundings. I looked over peoples fences, and I realized that I was looking into a piece of their life. I could tell if they had kids. I knew if they had boys or girls, or both. I was able to tell, at times, where they were from, or where they had been. Some people had a large bronze star on the front of their house, such as can be found in abundance in Texas. I was trying to think about how I would frame their house in a photograph so that I could capture as much of their lives as possible.

One place that stood out to me was a house standing about 50 yards off the road. It did not have a fence. It stood upon a lot of concrete, raised above the ground about a foot. The lot was surrounded on all sides by miles and miles of dirt. The house itself was beautiful and very clean looking; especially when compared to the dirt surrounding it. Various patches of the field of dirt surrounding it were covered in snow. Every single other house in the area seemed not to care that their house matched the surroundings; except this house. For some reason, this house stood out like a sore thumb. Why did they decide to do this? Who lives there? Are they young? Old? Why do they choose to live in a house that looks like it should belong in a suburban location? How many people live in the house? Do they even own the surrounding property? Do they farm in the spring? Or do they just enjoy having a lone, small house on a huge, empty lot? Do they care that people shoot guns right near their property? Hope not…

These are questions I would have not thought to ask, but that are things I suddenly want to know. I found myself looking at my surroundings as though they were works of art. I began to want to know more. The ordinary things around me, that I have driven past many times, took on very different meaning to me this time.

- Casen!