Brion Nuda Rosch, artist
ARIZONA HIGHWAYS
"My father stopped the car overlooking a hand painted wood sign declaring our future. LAND FOR SALE / 50 ACRES. I stepped on a cactus. I was eight years old, maybe nine.
Growing up, we moved very often and my father did not trust airplanes. Before I entered high school I had seen the entire country from the back seat of our family Oldsmobile.
On Easter we would drive from Denver to Phoenix. I remember my mother sitting in the front seat covered by the sun, making whimsical remarks concerning the changing colors of the landscape. My father would daydream. I sat in the back, pulling cactus needles from my foot.
I wore a jacket with Michigan stitched along the back. We had never lived in Michigan, and this particular drive began far from Michigan. Welcome to Connecticut – Son. A year later I broke my nose, or Mike did actually, punched me square in the face. I understand now - it was confusing then, a boy from Colorado wearing a Michigan jacket. Mike had never been to either state and this particular conundrum must have angered him.
My father was a businessman and my mother was a HIPPY.
HIPPY may not be the right word.
In fact she was NOT a HIPPY.
There were no HIPPIES in Arizona, only Cowboys and Indians.
My father was a Cowboy, my mother an Indian.
We would stop along the side of the road to buy turquoise from Indians. The stones were laid out over large blankets. Years later I returned on my own, the Indians were not there. The local bartender told me they all opened casinos. “I guess it’s time we pay them back”, he said.
Walking down the street in San Francisco with my wife, I found an old box filled with Arizona Highways.
I took all I could.
I am HOME."
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Brion Nuda Rosch currently lives and works in San Francisco. It has been many years since he has driven across the country. Studio time is shared with the curatorial direction of Hallway Projects including the One Day Artist Residency program and the now closed art reference blog Something Home Something. A recent residency with SFMOMA's Open Space involved blindfolded visits to the museum, recorded conversations and interventions, and pairing Sesame Street animations along side Jiddu Krishnamurti, Joseph Campbell, and E. H. Gombrich. http://blog.sfmoma.org/authors/alumni/brionnudarosch/
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