The Orbit Inn Motel

Where to even begin with this troubled yet far-out landmark?

The site of the deadliest bombing in Nevada’s history The Orbit was reduced to rubble in 1967 tragically killing 6. No one knows why an army deserter shot his handgun into 50 sticks of dynamite, but the mystery seems like something out of a Twilight Zone episode.

When David delivered The Orbit to me with the upper left burned, I couldn’t shake the idea that this once ‘perfect’ illustration was saved from the rubble and framed as a proud surviving artifact. The puzzling story of the Orbit’s explosion had me dreaming of black and white, often full TZ-esc episodes of different scenarios. Maybe he just wanted to launch that rocket, maybe he was an alien, or maybe he was just a guy at the end of his rope, but at the end of every dream, the camera closed on the same thing the episode opened on, except in the end, the illustration was charred.

The frame has a bevel that allows this piece to seemingly lift off from the wall, while the stripes get smaller as you get closer to the piece, giving a small hypnotic effect. This is the only frame in the series with visible paper. I wanted the backing to resemble static yet give a uniform pattern with no wood grain. This allows the piece to sit on top and the burn to not be distracted from.