Whether you are a friend from Colorado, Kansas or the DC area, you know our story.
If you have just stumbled across this page or want to catch up on what’s new with us, please keep reading.
In 2014, we made the leap to move from Southwest Colorado to the Washington, D.C. area. Heather found an amazing opportunity to help build what’s now known as the Visioneering team. Ray spent his days photographing protests and demonstrations, exploring the streets of DC and taking portraits of strangers.
This last year has been a strain on us all: as a country, with work and business, and being away from our families. We attended the inauguration and witnessed the protests. We marched the day after and embraced the power of unity. Now we are looking to travel across America post election. We want to know how people are feeling and what they are thinking about the new era: what is to come, their hopes and what they have experienced due to changes in power and policies.
It has always been our dream to explore the Pacific Northwest and drive down the Western coast to the Redwood Forest. Getting there will be half the fun and over half the trip! We plan to decompress at artist-in-residencies along the way and visit Heather’s family to pick up a 1947 Tourette teardrop trailer to take on our travels. And wouldn’t you know, her name is Flo!
We would like to share 3 facets of the next chapter of our life together—our next great adventure.
· The Teardrop trailer rebuild
· Artist in Residencies and our projects
· Where we land next
The Teardrop Trailer rebuild
Heather’s parents, Paul and Debbie are working on the first half (more like 7/8th of the rebuild). She’s a 1947 Tourette teardrop trailer with original aluminum shell. The piano hinge on the galley is in great condition. Mom is a massage therapist by day and is the lead on managing the project. Dad is using all of his skills on restoration and maintenance.
Here are the photos I took during a visit last fall. It’s pretty rough but it’s gutted and ready for the rebuild.
Dad is shown here grinding and sanding the frame. This is one of maybe a dozen photographs of him so we are lucky to have captured it. He doesn’t get on the computer much so I doubt he will see this.
Next up, fortifying and powdercoating the frame, wheels and installing the floor.
More to come, please stay tuned for future updates by subscribing to our blog.
Artist-in-Residencies and Projects
Working mostly in graphite and ink on paper, Heather will focus on her fine art—something she hasn’t had the opportunity to do since 2014—and creating videos and exemplars on lettering. Mixing mediums and metaphors, it will take some unwinding to get back into the flow.
Ray will be working on his “100 Strangers” project: Portraits of people he finds along the way. This could include photographs of people at protests, artists in their creative spaces, those he encounters along the way.
And of course with all this time, they can update their websites: www.HeatherMartinez.com and www.RayCliks.com.
Where We Land Next
Our guess is as good as yours at this point. That is half of the adventure!
With some encouragement from friends, we’ve decided to share our story to those who may be interested in following along. Though we have a few mile markers staked out, we don’t have the entire trip planned. Your support in our adventure of documenting while traveling across America is inspiring to us. For those of you who would like a postcard, snapshot of a hand-written page from our travel journal, or piece of art made while on the road, please email us.
On the Road with Flo 