The Disappearing West I once delivered a van load of art work from Anacortes, Washington to a gallery in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin. It took me 3 days to get there. I took 3 weeks to get home. I drove more miles on dirt roads than on interstates. I dodged tornadoes in Nebraska. I had breakfast with 3 farmers who each weighed over 300 solid pounds and who told me they raised hogs. I went to a town called Raton just because I liked the name, and New Mexico wasn't that far out of the way. I watched fireworks from the top of a dam in a gorge in Utah. I saw some country. I had some great conversations. I took some photographs. I had something of an epiphany. I love the West. If it is east of the Mississippi River, I cannot get excited. I'm even a little ambivalent about states that border on the west side of the Mississippi. The West is vital to me, and I like it. The work for this book is a series on the "Disappearing West". The Western United States is changing faster than any other portion of the country at any other time. Things are being altered that will never be here again. This includes scenery, buildings, and entire towns. Especially ways of life. The West is changing, and changing rapidly. All of this is due to growth. I am not against this growth, and I do not want my work to be involved in the connotation that change is bad. Things, particularly in the West, will never be the same as they are now. We have something here that is very unique, and we need to see it. I want to be a part of people seeing the West as it now is. This book will be a series of prints displayed with narratives. Some of the writing will be serious, some irreverent, and some will involve quotes from others pertaining to the West. Because the West will not be the same tomorrow, and I want people to see the West as it is now. The Disappearing West.