Roadboys Travels: Signs and Everyday Art

Like Steam On A Mirror

Wherever mankind travels we leave telltale marks behind. The marks can be anything from ruts left by Conestoga wagons bringing pioneers west to cave paintings or stone petroglyphs.

Some of our marks are instructional like signage. Some marks are temporary like the finger drawings we make on a steamy mirror or the sandcastles we build on a beach.

A big part of my travel experience is the (almost unconscious) absorption of everyday art and signage I encounter along the way. The problem is that we can become inured to it. So much so that we frequently don't even "see" it anymore.

So this blog post is dedicated to examples of the art and signage I've encountered while traveling. Some made me laugh. Some (like the tags painted on historic buildings) made my heart ache.

A lot of it made me stop and think.

I'll admit that some made me break down and cry.

There are times I now kick myself for not stopping and snapping photographs.

Such was the case a few years back when I saw a big two-sided sign in rural North Carolina. On one side it proclaimed boldly "Jesus Rocks!". Then as I drove past in my rear view mirror I saw that the back of the sign just as loudly shouted "Satan Sucks!".

I ask you, who could not be impressed by the intellectual, yet direct, tenor of such a message?

So in no particular order.....