Life Beyond Ink · 2024

The Rugged Ramblers

Sergey Fedotov was born in Moscow and found his freedom on the open roads of America. What began as a leap across continents became a pilgrimage of self-discovery, sketched mile by mile into his visual journal, Highway Notes. Driving a retro van through forgotten highways and race tracks, he documented the pulse of the country and eventually put down roots in Portland, Oregon, where he built a new home, a circle of artists, and a body of work he calls the Rugged Ramblers, an ode to movement, rebellion, and the stories that unfold when you chase the road instead of the map. I filmed Sergey at the Toutle Race Track, deep in the Washington woods under a heavy August heat, engines roaring through the pines and dust rising off the track, the same spirit of the road that shaped his art alive all around him.

Filmed by Dakota Weik and Michael Corman. Edited by Dakota Weik.