Illustration Friday: Transportation -

"Selfportrait of the Artist as A Tour Bus Operator"
digital collage by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

"... art has to move you and design does not,
unless it's a good design for a bus ..."
- David Hockney

A TOURism Project -

"Checkered House"
digital collage by Mick Mather

I've had a "TOURism Project" on the drawing board for as long as I can remember. It all began with a little known intersection in Oswego County, New York, known as Checkered House. Here, a building painted in a checkerboard pattern, likely an old Coach Road Inn at one time, marks the beginning of New York Route 104 that travels west all the way to the City of Niagara Falls. The idea for the project is to travel the length of this road as a tourist might, seeking attractions, historical markers, heritage and arts & culture sites, hot dog stands, farmers markets, bed & breakfasts and, well, you get the idea. It's doubtful that I'll be able to get to this project without a grant and a small research staff but it's been on my mind.

Like I'm not busy enough already?

"The Mirror People Cause A Commotion"
digital collage by Mick Mather

I have some old work that's been nagging at me to put a book together. This will be a sequential novel in the form of a travel guide - the sort that a tourism office might send you through the mail to entice you to make them your vacation destination this year. At the same time, this is a science fiction tale of a newly discovered planetary system that's actually a part of our own. Toward that end, the piece you see posted tonight will, eventually, be reposted at my new blog with some sort of a story attached to it. I've already begun this new adventure with another set of artistamps, a block-of-4 commemoratives. Like I said in the title to this evenings post - I don't already have enough to do!