Small Towners

Dan Boardman Untitled 5 (wallpaper)

I saw this photograph posted on 20x200's facebook page along with the artist's statement below.  I immediately connected to the artist's feelings about growing up in a small town.  I find I'm always happy to encounter other "small towners".  Particularly ones who keep roots in their hometowns, but have moved on (like myself).  Learning what people from small towns do with their lives (staying or going, accomplishments, regrets, memories, roots) is something I am fascinated by, probably because it's the story of my life as well.  Dan Boardman hits then nail on the head when he says, "To grow up in a small town is to always be looking for something bigger, to be looking out to the next chapter, waiting, daydreaming. To move away from a small town is to long for its innocence and its comfort."  Exactly, Dan, exactly.  See full artist's statement below, and check out more here at 20x200. Here's to small towners, and happy Friday. xx - m.m.

ARTIST STATEMENT

This body of work was generated in the winter of 2006 during trips to my hometown.
These trips revealed something static about home. In a front yard, or a parking lot, I would find my feet stepping into my old footprints, but I was seeing what I had missed then. I sought to photograph my past in the present. To grow up in a small town is to always be looking for something bigger, to be looking out to the next chapter, waiting, daydreaming. To move away from a small town is to long for its innocence and its comfort.

This work was an investigation into memory, how it changes and what traces trigger a relationship between then and now.