Tag Archives: Art

The Key and Guardian of the Gate

Posted on by Bill Chance

“Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth. He knows where the Old Ones broke through of old, and where They shall break through again. He knows where They have trod earth’s fields, and where They still tread them, and why no one can behold Them as They tread.”
― H.P. Lovecraft

The Guardian
Horton Humble
2017 Louisiana, Welded Steel
Poydras Street

In the City of New Orleans there is a fantastic arrangement of sculpture along Poydras Street. Walking down and back from my son’s apartment to the Running of the Bulls I took photos of a few of them that I’ll share with you.

The Guardian is a giant figure, a hybrid of a man and a bird, standing for the inhabitants of a great city. It represents a creature activated by fear capable to rise up each time humanity doubts its own powers to overcome injustice and inhumanity.
—Horton Humble

Across Poydras and down a few doors from my son’s apartment is the Le Pavillon Hotel – originally named the Denechaud, then for generations was the De Soto Hotel. – which boasts an ornate entrance with huge classical statues flanked by massive Corinthian columns. I loved the contrast with the modern sculptures scattered along the median of Poydras.

From my son’s apartment pool, look up, I could see the bleached white back of a statue on a wall against the sheer drop down to the street. I found out this was a sculpture at the Le Pavillon’s pool. I was oddly fascinated by this – and one day want to visit.

The pool at Le Pavillon, from TripAdvisor. You can see the sculptures against the wall. The blue-gray building with vertical windows behind and to the left is my son’s apartment building.

The Guardian
Poydras Street
New Orleans

Black Butterfly

Posted on by Bill Chance

“Hundreds of butterflies flitted in and out of sight like short-lived punctuation marks in a stream of consciousness without beginning or end.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

Black Butterfly
John T. Scott, Aluminum, 1996
Poydras Street, New Orleans

In the City of New Orleans there is a fantastic arrangement of sculpture along Poydras Street. Walking down and back from my son’s apartment to the Running of the Bulls I took photos of a few of them that I’ll share with you.

“Black Butterfly” is an abstract aluminum sculpture completed four years after John T. Scott was awarded the MacArthur Genius Award. Scott’s work frequently displayed themes related to African-American life, particularly the rich Afro-Caribbean culture and musical heritage of New Orleans. See this sculpture on Poydras Street at O’Keefe.

Stay Open, Forever

Posted on by Bill Chance

“Don’t be afraid to be confused. Try to remain permanently confused. Anything is possible. Stay open, forever, so open it hurts, and then open up some more, until the day you die, world without end, amen.”
― George Saunders, The Braindead Megaphone

“It is always important to know when something has reached its end. Closing circles, shutting doors, finishing chapters, it doesn’t matter what we call it; what matters is to leave in the past those moments in life that are over.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Zahir

Opening & Closing
Fritz Bultman
Bronze, 1975
Poydras Street, New Orleans

Looking at the photo I took, I had a hard time making sure I had the title and sculptor right. Photos online looked so different. I realized that the sculpture looks completely different from various angles.

Now I need to go back. I need to go back, walk around the sculpture, and look at it from all sides. Shame it’s in the middle of a street – I’ll have to risk it.

No Cyclist Can Truly Feel Safe

Posted on by Bill Chance

“I delve into the mysterious and counterintuitive world of helmets and high-visibility gear later in the book. But it’s worth immediately noting this: while they’re not inherently bad, they’re less a safety device for cycling than a symptom of a road network where no cyclist can truly feel safe.”
― Peter Walker, How Cycling Can Save the World

Sculpture by Paul Perret, 1984,
Helmet by me,
French Market, New Orleans

Sculpture by Paul Perret, 1984,
Helmet by me,
French Market, New Orleans

It Exists Absolutely More Than Anything Else

Posted on by Bill Chance

But witches don’t exist, and they don’t live in swamps, I say.

“Yeah, they do. They do exist. They just don’t exist the way you think they exist. They certainly exist. You may say well dragons don’t exist. It’s, like, yes they do — the category predator and the category dragon are the same category. It absolutely exists. It’s a superordinate category. It exists absolutely more than anything else. In fact, it really exists. What exists is not obvious. You say, ‘Well, there’s no such thing as witches.’ Yeah, I know what you mean, but that isn’t what you think when you go see a movie about them. You can’t help but fall into these categories. There’s no escape from them.”
—-Jordan Peterson

St. George and the Dragon
John Mills, Bronze, orig. Plaster
Windsor Court Hotel, New Orleans

Sleep Without Dreams

Posted on by Bill Chance

“What would an ocean be without a monster lurking in the dark? It would be like sleep without dreams.”
― Werner Herzog

St. Kampos by Ashley Pridmore
2018 Bronze
Poydras Street, New Orleans

In the City of New Orleans there is a fantastic arrangement of sculpture along Poydras Street. Walking down and back from my son’s apartment to the Running of the Bulls I took photos of a few of them that I’ll share with you.

Seahorse sculpture installed on Poydras Street

New giant golden seahorse sculpture arrives on Poydras Street

NEW ORLEANS CELEBRATES INTERNATIONAL SCULPTURE DAY 2018 WITH GIANT SEAHORSE INSTALLATION

Like a Graceful Dream

Posted on by Bill Chance

“On a certain day in the blue-moon month of September
Beneath a young plum tree, quietly
I held her there, my quiet, pale beloved
In my arms just like a graceful dream.
And over us in the beautiful summer sky
There was a cloud on which my gaze rested
It was very white and so immensely high
And when I looked up, it had disappeared.”
― Bertolt Brecht, Poems 1913-1956

William Cannings
Stacked V
2016 Texas
Materials: Steel, Paint and Polyester Flakes
Poydras Street, New Orleans

Artist Statement:
“Tall, bright and colorul, Stacked V aims to be whimsical and eye catching. The shapes are made with sheet steel – cut welded and inflated with air pressure to appear soft and ephemeral. The surfaces are developed using automotive paints to be glossy, smooth and seductive. The individual squares are free to spin on their aces – a changing composition of color and reflection.” – William Cannings

In the City of New Orleans there is a fantastic arrangement of sculpture along Poydras Street. Walking down and back from my son’s apartment to the Running of the Bulls I took photos of a few of them that I’ll share with you.

This is another sculptor from New Orleans that I recognized – I had seen his work (though I haven’t photographed or put it in my blog yet). He has a sculpture in the Hall Gallery in the Dallas Arts District named “Cubed.” Now I have to take the train down there, ride my bike, take some photos. I do have entries from right around there, after all.

Art and/or Advertisement

Posted on by Bill Chance

“The thing I hate the most about advertising is that it attracts all the bright, creative and ambitious young people, leaving us mainly with the slow and self-obsessed to become our artists.. Modern art is a disaster area. Never in the field of human history has so much been used by so many to say so little.”

― Banksy

El Pajaro y la Nina by Ray Smith, 2016 Mexico/New York, Material Reclaimed Tires/Poured Concrete
Poydras Street, New Orleans

In the City of New Orleans there is a fantastic arrangement of sculpture along Poydras Street. Walking down and back from my son’s apartment to the Running of the Bulls I took photos of a few of them that I’ll share with you.

I don’t know what I like the best… the sculpture by Ray Smith… or the giant poster for Zatarains.

Even Facts Change

Posted on by Bill Chance

It is said that ‘change’ is the only real constant. It may very well be fact, but then again, even facts change and that may be the fact that governs us all.
—- James Surls, artist statement

Standing Vase With Flowers, James Surls, 2010 Colorado, Bronze and Stainless Steel
Poydras Street, New Orleans

In the City of New Orleans there is a fantastic arrangement of sculpture along Poydras Street. Walking down and back from my son’s apartment to the Running of the Bulls I took photos of a few of them that I’ll share with you.

Walking down Poydras, I spotted another sculpture along the street and immediately knew I had seen this sculptor’s work before.

It was Standing Vase With Flowers by James Surls… and I had seen his work at the Irving Arts Center Sculpture Garden and at the Frisco Sculpture Center.

It gave me a comfortable, warm feeling to see work from an artist I was familiar with – echoes of shapes from a long way away and a long time ago.

James Surls, Again in the Meadows, plus a construction crane, a pile of dirt, and a stop sign

James Surls, Star Flower
reflection
(click to enlarge)

James Surls, Star Flower
(click to enlarge)

James Surls, Star Flower
inverted reflection
(click to enlarge)

James Surls, Star Flower
(click to enlarge)

James Surls, Again in the Meadows

David in Bluestone

Posted on by Bill Chance

“People are so fucking dumb. Nobody reads anymore, nobody goes out and looks and explores the society and culture they were brought up in. People have attention spans of five seconds and as much depth as a glass of water.”
― David Bowie

David, by Boaz Vaadia, 2009, New York, Material: Bronze and Bluestone
Poydras Street, New Orleans

In the City of New Orleans there is a fantastic arrangement of sculpture along Poydras Street. Walking down and back from my son’s apartment to the Running of the Bulls I took photos of a few of them that I’ll share with you.

From the exhibition Label:
ABOUT THE ART”
“David” is a bronze casting of a larger-than-life-size figure that was sculpted in layers of bluestone. The unique style of Vaadia’s work is directly inspired by the natural formation of stone in the earth and other forces of nature. Through the materials he works with and the sculpture he makes, Vaadia explores the primal connection of Man to Mother Earth.”

Down at the river end of Poydras is another sculpture entitled “David” very different than the one by Enrique Alferez that I wrote about the other day. This “David” is by Boaz Vaadia and is an almost-abstract figure of bronze cast from flat layers of stone.

I’m sure thousands of commuters drive by every day on their way to work and thousands more tourists go by on their way to the French quarter or the Casino. None of them notice the giant figure standing there at the intersection. Shame, really.