For two months now I have had limited use of my left arm. I am recovering, but still being very careful what I do: no strenuous work or heavy lifting! My new series, The Surprisingly Artistic Potholes of Port Townsend, has come about through an injury.

Most of my recent art work has been photography, often including plenty of digital enhancement. This led me to a very local project: the series of photos, mostly enhanced or transformed, that I call The Surprisingly Artistic Potholes of Port Townsend!

This is not a “fine art” series, but a quick and dirty (potholes are muddy!) and very fun way of showing up, and enjoying the sorry state of Port Townsend streets. But there is art here too. There is unexpected beauty everywhere, even in potholes and puddles!

I am of mixed mind as to the desirability of smooth well paved residential streets: potholes are great for traffic calming, and I would rather see resources better directed. But the current reality is that we do drive, many of us really do rely on our vehicles, with few reasonable alternatives to driving. So many people in Port Townsend are old, and many are infirm; we are not going to take to bicycles at this point in our lives. And younger working parents probably cannot readily readjust their lifestyle to bike to work, etc. That kind of change does not happen overnight.

So some level of street maintenance is badly needed… and is not really happening!

You can find many more of The Surprisingly Artistic Potholes of Port Townsend in my online photo gallery!