This sign may well have once announced its product alongside of historic US Route 66, the “Mother Road” of American highways. Today, pock marked with bullet holes, it rusts away in the front yard of Tom's Welding and Machine Shop in Barstow. This image is built around the incongruous contrast of textures and colors. I juxtapose rusty patches and bulging bullet punctures with the yellow letters and symbols that once implied perfection. No less than Mercury, the fleet footed messenger of the Roman Gods, is present here. Yet the opposing symbols of violence and neglect are here too – heavily textured and begging for our touch.