One of the downsides of social media is that one’s voice is diluted and divided. In my earlier days of blogging, that was my only platform, so everything went there.

Now, I might have conversations about art on twitter, share my photo series on Instagram, and lose track of what should be put on the blog.

The View Through the Windshield is my many years project of taking photos daily, as a creative challenge, even if the only way I could take them was in the car, at a red light, or having pulled over (while little kids were safely buckled in car seats).

After a death in the family last year, I seem to take more screenshots, to help me remember something, or to share with a friend, than actual photos. That’s starting to change, so here are a few recent ones.

Here’s the story on this one, above.  I was driving along and this van was in front of me, and I thought, “hmmm, I wonder what their artistic intention is…”  As I got closer, I realized, “oh, it’s literally a playhouse, and they’re taking it home.”

Below are some photos of a living history center where we went on a field trip recently.  Some great textures and light.

Now that’s a mandrel.

There’s a quilt in one room that tells the family history, and this one shows the daughters shaking the insects out of their petticoats!  (Yes, I’m super fun to go places with, I’ll always be the one photographing the quilt square with girls shaking bugs out…)

I love it when museums show the process of how things are made, with this kind of step by step.  Especially now, as fewer people make things with their hands, either out of necessity or for personal satisfaction, people have no idea how things were made.  I wish more museums would do this.  (I have a photo from another trip that shows the process of making a hair comb out of bone, that was fascinating.)

This display shows the choices for home-spun and woven cloth, cotton, flax, wool.  I wonder what present day chores will end up in living history museums of the future?  Loading the dishwasher?  Syncing your iPhone?