media
-
First Friday Santa Cruz: Secret History Project Tells Untold Stories of the San Lorenzo River
For local artist Wes Modes, this process of finding and sharing the stories of people’s relationships to rivers is a deeply powerful form of social practice—an art form that creates change through human interaction and conversation.
-
Wheeling News-Register: California researcher travels Ohio River in shantyboat to learn about river life
The Intelligencer, Wheeling News-Registerby Mike Jones WHEELING, W.Va. – Wes Modes was stunned by the scenic beauty of the Ohio River as he floated down the waterway in his shantyboat this week on the first leg of a 600-mile voyage from Pittsburgh to Louisville as he collects personal stories from “river people” along the way.…
-
-
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: California artist will capture life on the Ohio River in a homemade shantyboat
Pittsburgh Post-Gazetteby Christian Snyder Backyards tell stories, Wes Modes says, and Modes is willing to listen while floating by on what looks like a hut on a raft. On Wednesday, the California-based artist will set off on a shantyboat from the head of the Ohio River to explore the communities along the more than 950-mile…
-
Marietta Times: Artist will stop in Marietta on Ohio River journey
The culture of people who have grown up and lived on the banks of America’s great rivers has largely been left out of history, and Wes Modes has set out to share them.
-
River Tramps: The Strange Floating Population Found on the Ohio
Where shantyboat history has been hard to come by on the four other rivers we’ve visited, on the Ohio River, one need only Google for shantyboat and the name of any town along the five states that front the river.
-
Santa Cruz Sentinel: “A Secret History” at Ebb & Flow River Arts Festival
Artist Wes Modes leaned against his shantyboat’s helm by the wooden dinette and his dog, Hazel, while he distributed free postcard photos of the 1940s-style vessel’s journeys on U.S. rivers.
-
The Final Fate of the Shantyboat Dotty and a Question
What became of us? What became of the Shantyboat Doty? Did the shantyboat sink? Did Hazel, our ships mate, and I have to swim to shore? Did we have to survive on chestnuts and wild mushrooms on an uncharted island in the middle of a remote part of the Mississippi River?