Bliss Diet Blog

For the past two weeks I have been trying to memorize the shapes and relationships of the contiguous forty eight states in order to use this knowledge in a series of riffs on Jasper Johns’ iconic encaustic map paintings.  Now that I am aware of the shapes of the state’s borders and this information is now in the forefront of my consciousness I am beginning to have some fun seeing state outlines in cracks in the sidewalk and cracked asphalt parking lots and driveways.  I go on long walks two or three times a week along city sidewalks from Redwood City to Menlo Park in the San Francisco Bay Area.  I usually walk at night.  Lately I’ve been finding lots of state shapes in the sidewalk.  As you have already guessed, Wyoming turns up a lot, as do Kansas and Colorado as well as the Dakotas but all that is required for a good Vermont / New Hampshire combo is a single sinuous angled crack across one of the Wyomings.  I recently found Minnesota, Nevada, Maryland, Idaho, Missouri and new York,  South Carolina is quite a common shape.  My favorite so far is a Wisconsin / Illinois combo.  I recently encountered a broken up asphalt driveway that, while squinting, could be imagined as the entire forty eight!