PASSAGES

Dayton, Nevada July 1982

During the early and mid-80's, I was an assistant to Oliver Gagliani at his Zone and Fine Print Workshop in Virginia City, NV. I look back now and realized it was at the end of a golden era of -- I don't know what to call it. It was a time just before, or at the beginning of a time when small towns began "fixin'" (Palinize) their face. Old falling down vacated buildings were being torn down because they were eye sores, but I've always found them to be a gold mine for my kind of image. What's that you say? Again, I'm not sure, but it has to do with the passage of time and other factors (like fire in the attached image) that leave an imprint of what went on before. I'm always alert for that sign or symbol from the human hand that says such-n-such happened here. Marks and messages from another time when our culture was a bit different is another way to look at it. In this old house in Dayton, NV, there had been a rather smoky fire any number of years before I sat foot in the place, but there on the wall was evidence of the last inhabitants: an old paper towel holder and a amateurish wiring system. Who knows, this may have been the cause of the fire.