Looking for Texas
by Rick Vanderpool

In 1994, shortly after moving to Commerce, Texas, photographer Rick Vanderpool began a series of trips that would total over 20,000 miles and 54 days to visit all 254 counties in Texas. While he photographed anything else that caught his interest – from road kill and wildflowers, to grand views and tumbleweeds – he was mostly looking for Texas; simply the word, in all its infinite variety of size, shape, color, style and material. Anywhere. On anything. And with character – as in worn, weathered, carved, etched, painted, stitched, tooled, scrawled, scratched or sculpted. From movie marquis, t-shirts and belt buckles; to barns, ball caps and tattoos.

Selecting from the more than 1,000 images of the state name, Vanderpool fashioned a unique graphic representation titled "Looking for Texas." He then set about to enlist a couple dozen other photographers to cover all 50 states in a similar manner. StateArt was born.