Tag Archives: Dallas

Waiting for the Gig

Posted on by Bill Chance

In front of the Winspear Opera House, Arts District, Dallas, Texas

“Even so, there were times I saw freshness and beauty. I could smell the air, and I really loved rock ‘n’ roll. Tears were warm, and girls were beautiful, like dreams. I liked movie theaters, the darkness and intimacy, and I liked the deep, sad summer nights.”
― Haruki Murakami, Dance Dance Dance

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“We feared that the music which had given us sustenance was in danger of spiritual starvation. We feared it losing its sense of purpose, we feared it falling into fattened hands, we feared it floundering in a mire of spectacle, finance, and vapid technical complexity. We would call forth in our minds the image of Paul Revere, riding through the American night, petitioning the people to wake up, to take up arms. We too would take up arms, the arms of our generation, the electric guitar and the microphone.”
― Patti Smith, Just Kids

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I’ve taken pictures here before and before… and now I’ve done it again and again.

“If music be the food of love, play on,
Give me excess of it; that surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.”
― William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

The Headlines Screamed, Baithouse Disappears

Posted on by Bill Chance

Joe Barrington, American (Texas), The Headlines Screamed, Baithouse Disappears, 2000
Frisco, Texas

If you are curious, it’s Right Here.

Here is Another one by Joe Barrington

“How do men act on a sinking ship? Do they hold each other? Do they pass around the whisky? Do they cry?”
― Sebastian Junger, The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea

The Headlines Screamed, Baithouse Disappears

The Headlines Screamed, Baithouse Disappears

“He remembered the time he had hooked one of a pair of marlin. The male fish always let the female fish feed first and the hooked fish, the female, made a wild, panic-stricken, despairing fight that soon exhausted her, and all the time the male had stayed with her, crossing the line and circling with her on the surface. He had stayed so close that the old man was afraid he would cut the line with his tail which was sharp as a scythe and almost of that size and shape. When the old man had gaffed her and clubbed her, holding the rapier bill with its sandpaper edge and clubbing her across the top of her head until her colour turned to a colour almost like the backing of mirrors, and then, with the boy’s aid, hoisted her aboard, the male fish had stayed by the side of the boat. Then, while the old man was clearing the lines and preparing the harpoon, the male fish jumped high into the air beside the boat to see where the female was and then went down deep, his lavender wings, that were his pectoral fins, spread wide and all his wide lavender stripes showing. He was beautiful, the old man remembered, and he had stayed.”
― Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea

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“…as the wind howled on, and the sea leaped, and the ship groaned and dived, and yet steadfastedly shot her red hell further and further into the blackness of the sea and the night, and scornfully champed the white bone in her mouth, and viciously spat round her on all sides; then the rushing Pequod, freighted with savages, and laden with fire, and burning a corpse, and plunging into that blackness of darkness seemed the material counterpart of her monomaniac commander’s soul.”
― Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

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“You see? I know where every single book used to be in the library.’ She pointed to the shelf opposite. ‘Over there was Catch-22, which was a hugely popular fishing book and one of a series, I believe.”
― Jasper Fforde, Shades of Grey

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“I must be in love with this woman, Sumire realized with a start. No
mistake about it. Ice is cold; roses are red; I’m in love. And this
love is about to carry me off somewhere. This current’s too
overpowering; I don’t have any choice. It may very well be a special
place, some place I’ve never seen before. Danger may be lurking
there, something that may end up wounding me deeply, fatally. I might
end up losing everything. But there’s no turning back. I can only go
with the flow. Even if it means I’ll be burned up, gone forever.”
― Haruki Murakami, Sputnik Sweetheart

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“There’s nothing in the sea this fish would fear. Other fish run from bigger things. That’s their instinct. But this fish doesn’t run from anything. He doesn’t fear.”
― Peter Benchley, Jaws

Roadrunner with Lizard

Posted on by Bill Chance

Joe Barrington, Texas, 2000, Roadrunner with Lizard. Frisco, Texas

Dear Warner Brothers,
I am old enough to know what the Beep-Beep is covering up when the Roadrunner gets away from the Coyote.

Roadrunner with Lizard, Joe Barrington, Frisco, Texas

Roadrunner with Lizard, Joe Barrington, Frisco, Texas

Roadrunner with Lizard, Joe Barrington, Frisco, Texas

Roadrunner with Lizard, Joe Barrington, Frisco, Texas

Roadrunner with Lizard, Joe Barrington, Frisco, Texas

Roadrunner with Lizard, Joe Barrington, Frisco, Texas

Oblique Sweep

Posted on by Bill Chance

Pray always for all the learned, the oblique, the delicate. Let them not be quite forgotten at the throne of God when the simple come into their kingdom.
—-Evelyn Waugh

John Brough Miller, Oblique Sweep, Frisco, Texas

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Rider

Posted on by Bill Chance

“What he loved in horses was what he loved in men, the blood and the heat of the blood that ran them.”
—-Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses

Shawnee Trail Sculpture, Central Park, Frisco Texas, bronze by Anita Pauwels

“But there were two things they agreed upon wholly and that were never spoken and that was that God had put horses on earth to work cattle and that other than cattle there was no wealth proper to a man.”
—-Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses

Shawnee Trail, by Anita Pauwels, Frisco, Texas

Shawnee Trail, by Anita Pauwels, Frisco, Texas

“He found he was breathing in rhythm with the horse as if some part of the horse were within him breathing and then he descended into some deeper collusion for which he had not even a name.”

“…and in his sleep he dreamt of horses and the horses in his dream moved gravely among the tilted stones like horses come upon an antique site where some ordering of the world had failed and if anything had been written on the stones the weathers had taken it away again and the horses were wary and moved with great circumspection carrying in their blood as they did the recollection of this and other places where horses once had been and would be again. Finally what he saw in his dream was that the order in the horse’s heart was more durable for it was written in a place where no rain could erase it.”

“He thought the world’s heart beat at some terrible cost and that the world’s pain and its beauty moved in a relationship of diverging equity and that in this headlong deficit the blood of multitudes might ultimately be exacted for the vision of a single flower.”

—-Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses

Christmas Lights, Barbed Wire, and Paint

Posted on by Bill Chance

Near Lee Harvey’s, Cedars, Dallas, Texas

“Information is the oxygen of the modern age. It seeps through the walls topped by barbed wire, it wafts across the electrified borders.”
—-Ronald Reagan

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“All anyone really needs to know about barbed wire is that it can tear the arse out of your trousers, give a cow a good fright, entangle a Yorkshire terrier for life, and is nasty stuff made by greedy men.”
― Billy Connolly

Gateway

Posted on by Bill Chance

I find myself working towards an art which includes a spiritual dimension. I have become increasingly aware of art as a dialogue between matter and spirit. In recent works, I have emphasized myth, symbol and dream to evoke an atmosphere in which the sculpture and its environment speak to the subconscious to make the observer aware of the dreamlike nature of life, of which we all are part.
—-Hans Van de Bovenkamp

Not too far, not very far at all, from the pile of steel boxes I wrote about yesterday, is the Arapaho DART station with another sculpture. This is a good one, by a famous sculptor, Hans Van de Bovenkamp, that you have never seen.

I’ve seen it, though. Richardson’s Central Trail – a hike-and-bike strip of concrete that runs through the city, parallel to the DART tracks and Highway 75, now being extended to the south – goes right by it. Otherwise, commuters on the bus or train never get more than a glimpse. It is exposed to the traffic going by on Greenville Avenue – but everyone is driving too fast to notice.

I didn’t look too hard and didn’t see a label or plaque. This is a public sculpture, though, so there is information on the internet. The sculpture is called Gateway, and, as I’ve said is by Hans Van de Bovenkamp. It’s painted aluminum (begining to fade a bit – might need a recoat) and is a variation of a theme of Bovenkamp – there is a bigger version in Oklahoma City.

The sculpture "Gateway" at the Arapaho DART station, Richardson, Texas.

The sculpture “Gateway” at the Arapaho DART station, Richardson, Texas.

A DART train pulls in. Arapaho Station, Gateway Sculpture

A DART train pulls in. Arapaho Station, Gateway Sculpture

Gateway, by Hans Van de Bovenkamp

Gateway, by Hans Van de Bovenkamp

Gateway, by Hans Van de Bovenkamp, Richardson, Texas

Gateway, by Hans Van de Bovenkamp, Richardson, Texas

Gateway sculpture and commuter bike

Gateway sculpture and commuter bike

Steel Boxes

Posted on by Bill Chance

One of the nice things about being a fan of sculpture is that you run into it all the time – if you are able to keep moving and your eyes open.

On a bike ride the other day, I pulled over for a minute to look at a sculpture I spotted in an unexpected place. It was off of Arapaho Road, not far from the DART station – in a stretch of very unartistic industrial buildings.

The Richardson Factory that belonged to General Packaging Corporation had a steel sculpture (probably welded of Cor-Ten) in a grassy spot next to the main entrance. You would never spot this from a car – but it’s obvious from the cockpit of a bicycle. I turned in (it was a holiday and the place was closed) and took a good look.

I was not able to find a label or plate, so I don’t know the sculpture’s name or artist. The only thing that turned up on a web search is a sculpture called Strange Romance by a sculptor from Taos named Ted Egri (he passed away a couple of years ago). I’m not sure if this is the sculpture – it doesn’t look like a Strange Romance… and the style is a little different from the rest of Ted Egri’s work.

But, the thing was obviously commissioned for the spot – the factory makes cardboard cartons and wooden boxes – the sculpture was made to commemorate the products.

At any rate – for any reason and by any artist – I liked the thing. I sipped from my water bottle and took a rest before riding on. I tipped my helmet to the folks at General Packaging for spending the money and having the thing built and installed in front of their otherwise nondescript factory. They made my day a little more pleasant… for a few minutes at least.

Sculpture at General Packaging.

Sculpture at General Packaging.

200 East Arapaho Road, Richardson, TX

200 East Arapaho Road, Richardson, TX

Sculpture and Commuter Bike. All Steel.

Sculpture and Commuter Bike. All Steel.

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Ladybug in a Flower Pot

Posted on by Bill Chance

“Did I ever tell you my pet peeve?’

No,’ I said.

People who dress up their pets to look like Little Lord Fauntleroys or cowboys, clowns, ballerinas. As if it’s not enough just to be a dog or cat or turtle.”
― Jerry Spinelli, Love, Stargirl

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“i made myself a snowball
As perfect as can be.
I thought I’d keep it as a pet,
And let it sleep with me.
I made it some pajamas
And a pillow for it’s head.
Then last night it ran away,
But first – It wet the bed.”
― Shel Silverstein

Deep Ellum Arts Festival Pet Parade, Dallas, Texas

Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas

Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas

“If you are a dog and your owner suggests that you wear a sweater, suggest that he wear a tail.”
― Fran Lebowitz

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“Dogs are the leaders of the planet. If you see two life forms, one of them’s making a poop, the other one’s carrying it for him, who would you assume is in charge.”
― Jerry Seinfeld

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“The strangest thing has happened. I really missed my dog. That’s never happened to me before. You know, on a long tour you do hear people saying they miss their pets. I never have. But last night I started really missing my dog.
It’s very odd, ’cause I don’t have a dog.”
― Bono

Ride That Spray Can

Posted on by Bill Chance

“I mean, they say you die twice. One time when you stop breathing and a second time, a bit later on, when somebody says your name for the last time.”
― Banksy

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Graffiti, Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas

“Imagine a city where graffiti wasn’t illegal, a city where everybody could draw whatever they liked. Where every street was awash with a million colours and little phrases. Where standing at a bus stop was never boring. A city that felt like a party where everyone was invited, not just the estate agents and barons of big business. Imagine a city like that and stop leaning against the wall – it’s wet.”
― Banksy

“Graffiti is one of the few tools you have if you have almost nothing. And even if you don’t come up with a picture to cure world poverty you can make someone smile while they’re having a piss.”
― Banksy