Once, when I was a teenager, I was caught carving my initials on the wall of an out-house.  I was accused (rightly so) of having a “writing fetish”.  Through that experience I was brought to a realization of how disrespectful and uncaring (unthinking) it is to do graffiti.  So, with this image several years later, I provide evidence that I have not yet been cured of my “writing fetish”.  I have an explanation that will either sound like this truly is different or else I’ve learned to rationalize my bad behavior.

 

This is one of the shorter love letters I’ve given my wife (can they get much shorter?).

 

I mowed “J+S” into our lawn, and it got erased the next day without a trace (except for this photo).  This isn’t much different from using a piece of driftwood to write or draw in the sand at the beach (I’ve done that, too), only to have the wind and waves erase the markings a short while later.

 

Grass is a relatively untapped artistic medium.  Although I’ve applied the familiar tools to the medium many times before, this was my first attempt to actually communicate something through mowing.  My children, who have since taken most of the mowing opportunities, have been inspired by my early doodles and are aspiring to become masters of the medium.  Whatever artistic heights they may attain in the future, I know they’ll trace their progress back to this early influence.