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In the spring of 2019, I spent three days with friends hiking the western end of the Finger Lakes Trail (FLT) in Allegheny State Park. I was about a third of the way to my goal of hiking all 574 miles of the trail. During the hikes, I use my phone to capture sights along the trail.

There had been a lot of rain that spring, so we were trekking through a lot of mud and across streams of various sizes. At one point we crossed a fairly elaborate bridge. FLT volunteers maintain the trail and the stream crossings can be anything from a couple of planks to actual wood structures spanning twenty or thirty feet. I snapped some photos of this bridge and continued hiking. As I walked, I started imagining a wall sculpture in my mind. I would use a photo of this bridge along side a couple of wood planks to represent the simple next to the elaborate stream crossing. As I pictured the piece in my mind, the idea grew into a whole series. I would find inspiration from my photos from previous hikes. I could make one piece for each of the thirty-four maps on the trail.

To date, I have completed a bit more than half of the 574 miles of the Finger Lakes Trail. The February show will feature nine pieces using images from seven of the maps

Using photography in my work is not new. I started combining photos with my wood constructions in the 1980’s. Since then I have returned to that combination periodically over the years. But I have never wanted to cover the photos with glass, and this leaves the paper prints highly vulnerable to damage. For the “Light, Color and Shadow” exhibit at State of the Art, this project is funded in part by a Special Opportunities Stipend from the Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County. The funding enables me to have the images printed on aluminum plates so they will be more durable.