Every series has a story...

Inspiration often comes from strange places, you never know what may inspire your artwork, or where it will take you. I've been thinking that I should start keeping better track of the things that inspire some of my creative directions. I think I'll start with my latest new series and technique... The Bullet Project. I love to adventure, explore nature, and find interesting and off beat places. Lucky for me I have a like minded friend and we frequently head off on the road less traveled to see what we can find, do a lot of birding, and photography, and sometimes get creative inspiration

Kelton's graveyard

An adventure this summer took us to the ghost town of Kelton, in the middle of nowhere northwest of the Great Salt Lake. While exploring the area we found ourselves driving down the little dirt road that is is the Transcontinental Railroad National Back Country Byway. As we drove we kept noticing dead rabbits, and wondered how so many rabbits could possibly be get hit by trucks in this very remote, traffic-less location.

A stop at the remnants of an old railroad trestle answered the question. The ground was littered with bullet casings, and we realized the bunnies were not victims of vehicular homicide, but met their end at the hands of yahoos with guns.

An old Transcontinental Railroad Trestle

Bullet trash

We were quite saddened by this, and we decided a challenge was in order. We gathered the bullet casings, and challenged each other to create something beautiful out of something we found ugly; the destruction of wildlife and littering of a beautiful spot.

I call our challenge the Bullet Project, and after much playing and experimentation with various chemical and electro-etching techniques, here are a bunch of my results!