rails
Seriously, though, if you’re near Meers, Oklahoma and it’s lunchtime and you’re hungry, let me recommend the Meer’s Store and Restaurant. The place is funky, the servers delightful, the food exceptional. Get a small burger – which isn’t really all that small – so you can save room for cobbler.
(But don’t go on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday because they’re closed. And it’s lunch service only.)
Meers, Oklahoma
photographed 11.6.2026
we just assume that it happens
I can’t even explain how much I enjoy views like this.
Lubbock, Texas
photographed 11.7.2026
look her in the eyes and say that
If you were here yesterday you already know that I completed an artist in residency program on Saturday. This was one of the people I met during the residency. She’s wearing a hot dog hat; has wonky eyes and something weird with her eyebrows; favors a bold red lip, and has had the same hairdo since the 1950s. Her name is Beverly.
Also, she’s a mannequin. And my residency program was at a bar.
Lubbock, Texas
photographed 11.7.2026
fellowship
You may not be aware of this exciting career development, but I did just complete an artist-in-residency program and have earned the title Fellow.
Here’s what happened. I actually spent several hours at a local establishment – here’s to you, Flippers Tavern – where my colleague* and I made a lot of photos. We agreed that it sounds a lot fancier to say we’re the first class to complete the residency and are now called Flippers Fellows** than it does to say what really happened which is that we meant to have lunch at Flippers and then move on to something else that was not defined, but that we just stayed there until it was time to meet our families for dinner.
Here’s the Inaugural Image from that intense period in my artistic life. It’s a stack of eight images that I made of three blinking pinball machines. That’s really the value of these residencies: it frees up your time so you can push your own artistic vision. Or, you know, whatever.
Lubbock, Texas
photographed 11.7.2026
*Claudette Torneden, if you’re wondering what kind of fancy connections I have in the art world.
**Please contact me for more information about available career-advancement opportunities.
uh…what now?
So.
This seems like maybe those church sign-writers need to read their proposed message out loud. Maybe out loud in front of 7th graders, or at least people with a middle-school humor threshold.*
It may not quite mean what they think it does.
Paradise Valley, Oklahoma
photographed 11.6.2026
*For the record, my traveling companion (whom I will call “Claudette” because that’s her name) and I meet that threshold.
