William Armstrong

Since 2002, the artist has spent twenty weekends per year away from his home in Richmond, Virginia —steadily racking up over half a million miles on a rotating cast of trusted (though admittedly abused) vehicles. The road holds countless stories and in this artwork, you will find them. Tales of out of the way honky tonks, movie palaces, cheap motels and barrels of gas paid on questionable credit; stories of both roadside dives and majestic theaters with the musicians that crawl in and out. The artist’s work is the soundtrack to a road trip; songs and artists are embedded on the towns they made famous. Bob Wills, Johnny Cash and Muddy Waters are as much as an influence as Frank Miller and Thomas Nast. The lines of the road have become indistinguishable from the lines of the pen; just as the subject from location. The artist draws with a series of different pens, using different weights of ink, as well as loose graphite. He works on a collage of vintage maps and sheet music.