Lost roads: Hardy county

Exhibited at the Lost River Artists Marketplace and Educational Foundation, and the Arts Club of Washington

Lost Roads: Hardy County

Artist Statement

I have been drawn to the woods since I can remember. The way they both reveal and conceal, the constant flux and growth, and the sharing of breath with the trees. I love finding ‘ruins’ – crumbling stone walls, forgotten foundations… There is magic to the remains of something formerly in use, something whose purpose, whatever it was in the past, is now to be found or forgotten.

I began discovering “lost roads” after traveling the same routes repeatedly, in different weather and during different times of day. They would often be adjacent to old farmland, overgrown or barely visible through the trees, hardly noticeable but for the obvious, manmade leveling of ground. Often they are near to streams, rivers, or other fresh water sources, which makes sense. I imagine who they may have connected, what places they allowed passage between.

Sometimes the road ruins are invisible but for the way the light and shadow tell you that once upon a time, people traveled there. Enhanced by the snow, these images were captured in Hardy County, West Virginia between Wardensville and Moorefield, scattered throughout the woods around Old Route 55. The grainy black and white brings a sense of contradiction: past/present, old/new, lost/found, seen/unseen.

-Jameson