Artist:
Andrew Ballstaedt
TITLE
Commuting from SLC to Provo
ON DISPLAY
September 20, 2002 – October 18, 2002
LOCATION
Hallway Gallery, level 2
A Collection of Rural Landscapes
“In two years I’ve put 66,000 miles on my car commuting from Salt Lake city to Provo for work and school. It has been great to have 2 hours a day to drive and just sit and be lazy. To listen to music, books on tape, or just sit and daydream as I drove. Had I lived in Provo I don’t imagine I’d have taken 2 hours a day to sit and be lazy. It wouldn’t have been “productive.” 2 hours to sit and be lazy doesn’t seem to fit on a prioritized “check off list.” But I had to commute, so the time to just drive and think became quite relaxing and sometimes helped my creativity. Once after a guy yelled out his window at me and flipped me off, I imagined and idea for a book: ‘50 Different Personalities of Drivers: Like The Ones Who Speed Up, But if You Try and Pass Them.’ Driving the freeway each day has probably taught me as much about people as has two years of school. The last few months I have tried to find one interesting thing to draw each day on my 2 hour commute. Sketching in the emergency lane is sometimes scary. In this show I have tried to make successful paintings from scenery that two years ago might not have been noticed by me, or may have just seemed ordinary and boring.”
GALLERY
