With the view of a skateboarder, objects designed for user purposes such as denoting where you should park – block-shaped curbs -- or separating a drop-off in the sidewalk – short granite ledges -- have the potential for creative action on a skateboard. Even in areas lacking this sort of urban design, there is opportunity to express yourself with what is already there. The possibility of doing tricks on the curb in a campus parking lot that has never been considered by the underside of a skateboard was plenty enticing for my creativity.

Time after time, I document myself skateboarding not only to show what tricks I can do but also to demonstrate what catches my interest spot and trick-wise. This reason for expression can be applied to the photos I take as well.

With the goal to clear my mind on a cold stroll through a suburban Marion stride and the outcome resulting in myriad photos of neighborhood front-yard trash and signage, I saw order, comedy, indulgence, hope, and hopelessness in a part of various peoples’ properties usually reserved for mocking judgement or momentary support by the other passerby’s. For instance, the bible quote on a sign may seem cliché to a young, contemporary audience engaged in more technology than spirituality, but with consideration towards what can salvation look like in turbulent times (and what is has looked like in literary history, see “The Wreck of the Deutschland,”) “the name of the lord” is not banal to the purchaser of this sign. The hope of this short video is to initiate introspective thinking not about the content of the sign or the fact that there are barrels of trash in the front yard but the emotions and order (or lack of it) implied by these objects so open to the public eye.