Current work: Texas Church Project

In 2020-2021, I Google mapped the entire state of Texas, methodically, county by county, searching for every church that Google had pinned and “photographing” the most distinct ones. I used Google street view to frame the photos and screen save on a large monitor to take them. I looked at more than 15,000 churches and ended up with several thousand images that show the astonishing diversity of church architecture. Perhaps the tradition of vernacular architecture in the US is nowhere as varied as in church buildings.

These buildings are set in the vast landscapes and skies of Texas. Each one is a capture of one particular moment and are not edited. They invite the viewer to examine the role of religion in our contemporary culture.

As the Google camera cars revisit the sites, they reveal the gradual transformation of the landscape. Within two years, several of the churches I have painted or modeled are already dramatically changed or gone entirely. Go here for a sampling of the photos.

I am also producing a body of work consisting of large paintings and scale models of certain images and buildings using the Google images. For the paintings, go here, and for the models, here.