The Flickr Americanhighways Image Generatr

Cash for Tools 2
from Rusty Signs, 2014
Ed Ruscha
Mixografia print on handmade paper

In Rusty Signs, a series of six prints produced at the Mixografia print studio in Los Angeles, Ruscha combines his interests in graphic signage, roads, the American landscape and visual illusions. Made from handmade paper, the prints look like the rusty, bullet-hole-riddled signs that Ruscha would frequently see along American highways. The phrases 'Cash for Tools' and 'Dead End' suggest downturn and decline.*

From the exhibition


Ed Ruscha: roads and insects
(September 2023 – January 2024)

This display of prints by American artist Ed Ruscha (b. 1937) focused on his prevailing interest in the physical world around him.
At its centre was Insects, a portfolio of six colour screenprints depicting life-sized flies, ants and cockroaches, complete with shadows to give the illusion of three-dimensional critters resting, swarming or scuttling across flat surfaces.
Printed in 1972, the portfolio was displayed in full. It was acquired by the British Museum in 2023 as a gift from a private collector in memory of Paul Thomson to the American Friends of the British Museum. The display also included a portfolio of seven soft-ground etchings from 2001 titled Los Francisco San Angeles, in which Ruscha creates imaginary maps that intersect the principal roads of LA and San Francisco, and two prints from the artist's 2014 series of Rusty Signs, which appear to comment on the fading of the American Dream.
In 1956, aged just 18, Ruscha moved from Oklahoma City in the South Central US to Los Angeles, the West Coast city with which he is most closely associated and where he has been based ever since. The near 1,400-mile journey along Route 66 would become very familiar to him over years of travelling back and forth and inspire his first artist's book, Twentysix Gasoline Stations. Self-published in 1963, this was a cheaply printed paperback containing black-and-white photographs of the filling stations that punctuated the highway like 'cultural belches in the landscape' (Ruscha). Ever since those early days in LA, where he trained in commercial graphic design, roads, cars, gas stations, signs and billboard advertisements have occurred frequently in Ruscha's art across a variety of media including painting, printmaking, photography, drawing and film.
[*British Museum]

Taken in British Museum

Cash for Tools 2
from Rusty Signs, 2014
Ed Ruscha
Mixografia print on handmade paper

In Rusty Signs, a series of six prints produced at the Mixografia print studio in Los Angeles, Ruscha combines his interests in graphic signage, roads, the American landscape and visual illusions. Made from handmade paper, the prints look like the rusty, bullet-hole-riddled signs that Ruscha would frequently see along American highways. The phrases 'Cash for Tools' and 'Dead End' suggest downturn and decline.*

From the exhibition


Ed Ruscha: roads and insects
(September 2023 – January 2024)

This display of prints by American artist Ed Ruscha (b. 1937) focused on his prevailing interest in the physical world around him.
At its centre was Insects, a portfolio of six colour screenprints depicting life-sized flies, ants and cockroaches, complete with shadows to give the illusion of three-dimensional critters resting, swarming or scuttling across flat surfaces.
Printed in 1972, the portfolio was displayed in full. It was acquired by the British Museum in 2023 as a gift from a private collector in memory of Paul Thomson to the American Friends of the British Museum. The display also included a portfolio of seven soft-ground etchings from 2001 titled Los Francisco San Angeles, in which Ruscha creates imaginary maps that intersect the principal roads of LA and San Francisco, and two prints from the artist's 2014 series of Rusty Signs, which appear to comment on the fading of the American Dream.
In 1956, aged just 18, Ruscha moved from Oklahoma City in the South Central US to Los Angeles, the West Coast city with which he is most closely associated and where he has been based ever since. The near 1,400-mile journey along Route 66 would become very familiar to him over years of travelling back and forth and inspire his first artist's book, Twentysix Gasoline Stations. Self-published in 1963, this was a cheaply printed paperback containing black-and-white photographs of the filling stations that punctuated the highway like 'cultural belches in the landscape' (Ruscha). Ever since those early days in LA, where he trained in commercial graphic design, roads, cars, gas stations, signs and billboard advertisements have occurred frequently in Ruscha's art across a variety of media including painting, printmaking, photography, drawing and film.
[*British Museum]

Taken in British Museum

from Rusty Signs, 2014
Ed Ruscha
Mixografia print on handmade paper

In Rusty Signs, a series of six prints produced at the Mixografia print studio in Los Angeles, Ruscha combines his interests in graphic signage, roads, the American landscape and visual illusions. Made from handmade paper, the prints look like the rusty, bullet-hole-riddled signs that Ruscha would frequently see along American highways. The phrases 'Cash for Tools' and 'Dead End' suggest downturn and decline.*

From the exhibition


Ed Ruscha: roads and insects
(September 2023 – January 2024)

This display of prints by American artist Ed Ruscha (b. 1937) focused on his prevailing interest in the physical world around him.
At its centre was Insects, a portfolio of six colour screenprints depicting life-sized flies, ants and cockroaches, complete with shadows to give the illusion of three-dimensional critters resting, swarming or scuttling across flat surfaces.
Printed in 1972, the portfolio was displayed in full. It was acquired by the British Museum in 2023 as a gift from a private collector in memory of Paul Thomson to the American Friends of the British Museum. The display also included a portfolio of seven soft-ground etchings from 2001 titled Los Francisco San Angeles, in which Ruscha creates imaginary maps that intersect the principal roads of LA and San Francisco, and two prints from the artist's 2014 series of Rusty Signs, which appear to comment on the fading of the American Dream.
In 1956, aged just 18, Ruscha moved from Oklahoma City in the South Central US to Los Angeles, the West Coast city with which he is most closely associated and where he has been based ever since. The near 1,400-mile journey along Route 66 would become very familiar to him over years of travelling back and forth and inspire his first artist's book, Twentysix Gasoline Stations. Self-published in 1963, this was a cheaply printed paperback containing black-and-white photographs of the filling stations that punctuated the highway like 'cultural belches in the landscape' (Ruscha). Ever since those early days in LA, where he trained in commercial graphic design, roads, cars, gas stations, signs and billboard advertisements have occurred frequently in Ruscha's art across a variety of media including painting, printmaking, photography, drawing and film.
[*British Museum]

Taken in British Museum

The abandoned swimming pool is located next to the route 66 near Two Guns, Arizona there used to be a little abandoned buildning next to this swimming pool, but it got destroyed during a fire few years ago, still a really nice place to stop !

Already 7 years since my last visit to this spot. Had to revisit with my current gear for some fresh shots. 🍺

Jerry Lynn Carter and Mr. Sam Carter at a cigar shop in Arizona - 2010

Gallup, New Mexico
Hasselblad 500CM medium format film

If you'd like to support my work, you can purchase a few books that feature my food and cocktail photography. Check out Ivan Ramen's first book - amzn.to/2O0K5SX and The Old Fashioned by cocktail writer Robert Simonson - amzn.to/2Ll2KXE using those links.

Old car parked in front of the Nipton General Store, Nipton California

Early morning on Highway 410.
I have traveled over nearly every highway in seven western States, and this Highway 410 which barrels through the Cascade range over two passes, the Cayuse and Chinook, clipping close to Mount Rainer through the Wenatchee National Forest and landing at a confluence on the eastern side where any direction the traveler may take will lead to more and even more. This highway is on my list of top ten favorites. It is close enough to where I live for a day trip filled with thrills. I especially appreciate the many options available once the passes have been cleared. One can head across Highway 123 which really comes close to the peak of Rainier where it seems ever turn in the road fills the windshield with it's massive glaceral view. Once past the Mountain the highway can take the traveler directly to the still raw and smoking crater of Mount Saint Helens. Or one can head west on Highway 12 through the White pass, or east to Wenatchee and the Colombia gorge, or north east through ancient canyons, the scrub lands and desert terrain. All of this can be done and be home in my warm safe bed in Seattle by the days end.

Get my 2014 Route 66 Calendar right here: www.zazzle.com/2014_route_66_calendar-158052205055223408

The turn off for Marin Veteran's Memorial Auditorium, San Rafael, California.

I heard the guys from American Pickers stopped here. Its a treasure trove of all things Americana.

SLR680 // Color Protection 8*12 - 70 degrees

Route 80 can take you from coast to coast, NY to Cali. A trip I have never taken and may not take until Im old with nothing left to do but travel.
This section of Route 80 East cuts through Paterson on its way to NYC via the George Washington bridge. From Paterson, NY is about 12 miles and takes about 15 mins free of traffic by car to get to Manhattan.
NJ is known as the crossroads for its extensive amount of highways and all of the out of state traffic that passes through the state to reach the city. George Washington used the same areas of NJ to travel. There are Revolutionary War signs scattered across the area marking the trails and battles that took place along certain modern roads. George Washington and his Continental Army used these routes to escape British troops in Manhattan and eventually he crossed back over the Hudson to capture the remaining British troops that were stationed in NYC.

Have a great weekend, and for those in the states enjoy your Memorial Day Weekend!

Topographical ocean: A bumpy 360 stop-and-look along Texas Hwy 54 outside Van Horn north toward Guadalupe Mountains and Carlsbad NM, morning of March 11, 2010. Shot with iPhone. You may want to turn down the volume to mute the wind, which a motel receptionist in Van Horn described as "extra-blowy."

Welcome party on Interstate 77, south of Virginia - North Carolina State line - Surry County, North Carolina. The Dodge Charger unit is enforcing speed limits just south of the Virginia - North Carolina border. The colors of late fall make the median very colorful.

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