The Road's Gone Out...

Today the opposite of tomato will tell you things to make your hair Straighten Out

A short afternoon visit back to the town of former residence, for the purposes of aural wellbeing, resulted in a most shocking discovery today. Gone, it appears, are the legendary double black lines, at least from the couple of locations where it was possible to ascertain evidence of this unfortunate development whilst perambulating prior to my appointment.

All that remains in some places is a certain ‘scarification’ of the road surface, the painted lines obviously scoured away by some process, appearing darker in tone than the adjacent, untouched tarmac, with perhaps a speck or two of the original yellow paint (over which the black had been layered, correctively) remaining & visible, otherwise wholesale resurfacing & complete obliteration seems to have taken place.

As anyone who might have visited this blog over its course (&, upon writing, we’re within two weeks of the 7th anniversary of its inception), this particular roadside/surface attraction has featured on many an occasion, from the early days to what has come to be the last appearance on May 14th of this year, primarily in documentary photographic form but also having been processed from such sources into drawing, initially in & for the many examples of itself & also, as aesthetic interests developed, as the scene for the visual recording of those numerous finds of discarded aluminium can ‘roadkill’ that have also littered (ahem) the passage of the blog.

To see it gone, therefore, results in an undoubted sense of loss. This, after all, was (to be) the primary subject matter for the ever-deferred Masters project, the intended site & opportunity for an exploration of the visual subject matter in whatever media might prove to be appropriate, not least drawing of course, and associated theoretical concepts: even though any such project would be based upon the photographic evidence amassed, still, it always felt & feels now, particularly acutely, that the source needed to exist in physical form, to be there, to be consulted &, probably, provide further, continued empirical reference material (material, perhaps, being the essential word).
What & where to now, one wonders, somewhat stunned in the immediate aftermath...?