Sketch of the Week

Roswell, I've noticed, is full of detritus.

Actually, every placed I've lived in is replete with discarded materials, it's symptomatic of a consumerist, disposable culture such as ours, but I seem to notice it more in Roswell than I do other places. Perhaps it's because the landscape is so open that there are fewer places to hide our material castoffs.


Most of this discarded material consists of the usual plastic bags and beer bottles, but one night I found an abandoned baby carriage in a culvert (rest assured, there was no baby in it). The day was fading into twilight when I encountered it, casting peculiar shadows, so I grabbed my sketchbook and drew it. As I worked, I found myself wondering why and how the carriage had gotten there, what babies it had once held, and what had become of those babies after they'd outgrown it. I also pondered what would happen to the carriage after I left, and how long it would stay in the culvert.

Nearly all of these questions will remained unanswered, but my last one, how long the carriage would remain in that spot, was settled by the next day. When I walked by again, it was gone.

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