county line

October 23, 2016 Payton O'Neal

Where you come from is gone, where you thought you were going to never was there, and where you are is no good unless you can get away from it. Where is there a place for you to be? No place. Nothing outside you can give you any place, he said. You needn't look at the sky because it's not going to open up and show no place behind it. You needn't to search for any hole in the ground to look through into somewhere else. You can't go neither forwards nor backwards into your daddy's time nor your children's if you have them. In yourself right now is all the place you've got. If there was any Fall, look there, if there was any Redemption, look there, and if you expect any Judgment, look there, because they all three will have to be in your time and your body and where in your time and your body can they be?

film · coen brothers’ fargo is a bleak expedition fueled by desperate momentum and frigid chaos between minnesotan and north dakotan counties.

words I · wise blood by flannery o'connor, whom the coen brothers have drawn inspiration from throughout their careers, on the futility of the journey and the inevitability of passing time.

paintings · clyfford still’s works and legacy exude his fascination with the abyss and transcendence, truth and disorder. still was born in north dakota.

words II · still was constantly inspired by william blake who embodied many of his unconventional beliefs, obscurity, and non-conformity, as expressed in this short passage from the marriage of heaven and hell.

photographs · photographer wayne gudmundson captures the landscape of north dakota—sky, road, and abandonment.

music · cass mccomb’s county line is a cynical yet fragrant ballad crooning with darkness and steadiness.