John Baldessari at first painted landscapes, but in 1967, wishing to create art out of everyday life, he started taking snapshots of National City, California. He then printed the photographs on canvas, with the locations written underneath by a sign painter. Soon he started using texts without accompanying photographic images. The lettering was done by a sign painter whom Baldessari instructed to use a uniform style for all of the canvases, and to concern himself only with legibility, not with aesthetic qualities, as the text was being used for information, not as decoration. The texts came from all kinds of sources, from essays about art to photography manuals. Baldessari saw the use of canvas as the only remaining link to art.