reverse glass painting > I'm Not Here: Scenes from Roads Most Traveled, Spartanburg and Mill Spring

These reverse glass paintings were created between 2007-2008 during a year-long artist-in-residence program at Hub-Bub in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

My relocation from New York City to Spartanburg, and my feeling that I may never return to New York, led me to question the definition of home in fundamental ways and contributed to an overwhelming feeling of homelessness and displacement. The reverse glass paintings are influenced by these feelings; they attempt to assess and define the qualities of home.

The series of 51 small reverse glass paintings “I’m Not Here,” began with the simple desire to become better acquainted with Spartanburg in the way I had become accustomed to in New York—on foot. I began a series of undirected, unplanned walks around the area, inspired by the Situationist concept of dérive. It was on these walks that I began to identify and photograph the small beauties of Spartanburg— abandoned industrial and commercial structures, old cemeteries, and brilliant sunsets. This process affirmed a sense of home and place in the form of my developing Spartanburg aesthetic, in the choices that I made for which images begged inclusion in the painting series. The result, somewhat unintentionally, is a series that highlights not only my enjoyment of a new and different landscape, but also the anxiety and alienation that these solitary and depressed landscapes reflected in me.


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Jesus The Christ
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Thomas & Sons
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Crosses, Mill Spring
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Mill (view from my window)
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
This Way
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Littlejohn's Service
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Garage
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Awnings
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Brick, Mill Spring
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Yellow Hut
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Telephone Pole in Sunset (small)
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Boarded Up, Mill Spring
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
In The Window
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Advent Cemetery
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Telephone Poles in Sunset (large)
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Post Office (front)
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
On The Stoop
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Machinery I
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Bank
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Mario's Garage
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Roadkill
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Machinery II
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Car Wash
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Reidville Road at Sunset
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
The No-Friends Club
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Garages, Mill Spring
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Across the Street
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
View from Magnolia Cemetery
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Muffler Shop
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Gas
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Winter Trees
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Alarm
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
The Squirrel and I
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Charlie in Hampton Heights
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Neon Bowling
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Church, Mill Spring
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Coin Laundry
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
By the Roadside, Mill Spring (car and outhouse)
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
E
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Coin Laundry (close-up)
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Lobby Lights
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Water Tower
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Pallets, Mill Spring
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Waffle House
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Schoolbus with Confederate Flag, Mill Spring
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
The Lots: Fog
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
The Lots: Snow
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Revival
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
By the Roadside, Mill Spring (garage and trailer)
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Trains
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008
Post Office (back)
Acrylic and marker on glass
All pieces in series under 7 inches in any direction
2008