Taken at the Deep Ellum Arts Festival
A Bird in the Hand
Taken at the Deep Ellum Arts Festival
Tag Archives: Deep Ellum
Monster Heads in Little Wooden Boxes
The night before we went down to the Deep Ellum Festival of the Arts, Music, Food, and Bad Tattoos, I pulled a little wad of bills out of a hiding spot and carefully counted. This was what was left of my stash of savings that I had scraped together and held aside for non-essential purchases. I was glad when I found out I had enough to buy another sculpture from an artist that haunts the Deep Ellum Festival, David Pound of twentyheads.com.
He makes little monster heads in wooden boxes out of sculpey polymer clay and found objects. I’m a big fan. He always brings a big inventory to Dallas and it’s hard to choose only one.
I found his booth right after we arrived and I gave everything a once over, then left to think about my decision. We walked down to the other side of the festival and as we were coming back I could see a huge Texas violent spring thunderstorm rising up on the west side of the gleaming towers of downtown. I knew that time was suddenly short so I walked quickly back down to David’s booth to make up my mind.
They all look so cool. Some have backgrounds I especially like, some have more interesting found objects (I particularly liked one with a roadkill rat’s desiccated hand sticking up from his head – I asked about preservation and David said, “A couple days in the sun and it’s like jerky”) and others have facial expressions I like.
I narrowed it down to two – then picked one named “Burrow.” I liked his earth tones, electronic parts, and snarky expression.
Burrow
Now “Burrow” sits on a shelf next to his buddy that I bought last year, “Persuasion.”
Persuation
Last year, for mother’s day, I had David Pound make a pair of earrings for Candy. For the commission, I sent him a photo of our dog, Rusty, and he made her earrings to match.
Earrings I had David Pound make for Candy for Mother's Day last year.
They do look like Rusty
Customers at the Deep Ellum Art Festival looking over David Pound's inventory of little monster heads in boxes.
It's hard to pick only one.
David Pound working on a creation.
Art, Music, Food, and Bad Tattoos
Every year, in the spring, Dallas is host to the three day Deep Ellum Art Festival. We try to go every year. I like to refer to it as the Deep Ellum Festival of the Arts, Music, Food, and Bad Tattoos.
I wasn’t able to get down there on Friday or Saturday, but managed to carve out a couple hours around noon on Sunday. The sky started to spit on the ride down and the clouds off to the west were looking ominous, so I had to scurry through the throng a little faster than usual.
There were a lot of artists there – more than usual. I was a little disappointed, though. Usually the Deep Ellum Festival of the Arts, Music, Food, and Bad Tattoos has a healthy selection of oddball, interesting, and edgy art for sale – but it seems to have been taken over by the usual selection of folks that haunt springtime festivals all across the heartland. There is one sculptor that I look for and he was there with his usual flair (tomorrow’s entry) but otherwise, there wasn’t much to catch my eye for sale.
Now, as far as the folks walking around, that was another story. That was fun.
The festival stretches in a double line of canvas booths lining Main Street for about a mile. It is now growing down a handful of side streets too.
One nice thing about an arts festival is the chance to meet and talk to the artists themselves.
A wide variety of stuff is for sale.
There is a lot of food at the ends - Por Ejemplo - the King of Candy Apples
At each end of the main drag were large stages. This guy was drawing a band - though they had already finished.
Plenty of hipster doofuses to keep things lively.
This woman was waving a turkey leg out of her food trailer. When someone came up to buy one, she said, "Let me get you a fresh one hon, this is my demo model, I've been waving it out this window for hours."
A guy eating a turkey leg being stalked by a woman in a "Reality is a Prison" shirt.
Smaller musical stages were set up out on the end of the side streets.
An artist and his creation.
I really liked these little sculptures... but you'd have to by all of them to get the same effect.
What I learned this week, March 30, 2012
In his defense of Obamacare, the Solicitor General quoted from the Preamble to the Constitution. I’m sorry, but I wasn’t immediately familiar with the exact wording of the Preamble – but I found this video that explains it all.
Abundance Is Our Future (and We All Know It)
A Museum on the Streets of Rome
The odd and amazing story of Sealand
Sealand is a small country located off the British coast on an abandoned WWII artillery platform in the North Sea.
Things I want to do in Dallas (coming up)
Candy and I have tickets to the SavorDallas Wine and Food Stroll tonight down in the Arts District. I bought them for her birthday.
The Deep Ellum Arts Festival is coming up April 6-8th. My favorite band, Brave Combo will be there. I’m trying to save enough cash to buy another sculpture by David Pound.
April 14th is Ciclovia de Dallas – where the Houston Street Viaduct will be closed to traffic and open only to bicycles. Looks like fun – another bridge party.
Free concerts in the Dallas Arts District. Unfortunately, these are on Thursdays and my writing group meets then – but I might be able to work something out.
Any other ideas? What am I missing?
For all of you Mad Men fans out there:
Seven Things I Wish I’d Have Known When I First Became A Photographer
- Care about what you are photographing
- Learn how to use your camera and stop changing systems
- It’s not the camera that makes the shot – it’s the photographer
- Find the light first, the background second and the subject third
- If you photograph people or make pictures professionally understand that being nice is better than being good
- The best photographs in the world happen when …. there is solid, real emotion and/or love
- Serious photography is about protecting memories, telling stories, keeping moments
Sorry, I’m sure this is more interesting to me than it is to you….
Forgot the Card
An old picture I took out my car window while waiting for a drive thru ATM.
The other day I had a little bit of time so I decided to head out with my camera and take some photographs. I made a little list of places to go – the rugby games near White Rock Lake, maybe a walk along the lake, a return to the Farmer’s Market, a stroll around Deep Ellum (I have some photographs from there, but wanted to supplement them before putting together an entry) and an arts and crafts market in Deep Ellum.
So I drove down to White Rock and discovered the Rugby games were delayed, so I wandered the streets down into Deep Ellum. I found a place to park, pulled my camera out, and walked to the market. I strolled the aisles, looking at the wares, and noticed there was a food truck set up.
It was a truck I’ve never tried before, Rock and Roll Tacos. I ordered some fish tacos and set about getting some pictures. I shot the truck, the market, some folks strolling around, and my food before I gobbled it down. I wasn’t really looking at my camera, simply pointing and shooting, having a fun time.
It seemed to be shooting too quickly so I checked the display. That’s when I realized that I had forgotten to put the memory card back in after sucking the old photographs off the night before. So I’m sorry – no pictures for you today. Well,….. the truck looked like a truck, the tacos looked like tacos, and the art market looked like an art market.
After a few seconds of frustration I felt better. It was a beautiful day, the fish tacos were good, and the art interesting. Without the camera I could simply look and enjoy.
Sometimes the world is better when not looked at through a viewfinder.
Bonked on the Santa Fe
I wanted to go on a bike ride on Saturday. After thinking about it I came up with a plan – get up and drive down to White Rock Lake with my bicycle in my trunk, then ride the Santa Fe Trail from there to Deep Ellum, eat breakfast at Cafe Brazil, then ride back.
Unfortunately, when my alarm went off and I dragged myself out of the sack I felt like crap. Tired, sick, and achy – the last thing I wanted to do was go out and put forth physical effort. So I shuffled around the house and felt sorry for myself. By eleven I was feeling a little better – took some deep breaths, and went ahead and set out. I filled the water bladder on my new pack and drove down to White Rock.
I worked on my bike in the parking lot for a bit. The old thing needs some serious work, and I didn’t have the parts, tools, or mechanical knowledge. The worst part is that the seat is crapped out. The front plastic part has broken off and the rest of the seat simply is sitting on the rails. Against my better judgement, I set off on the trip downtown. It isn’t that far, really, and I decided to simply gut it out.
The Santa Fe trail is very cool. It follows the abandoned rail bed of the old Santa Fe railroad and runs from a connection with the White Rock Lake Trail down to Deep Ellum near downtown Dallas. Near the lake, the trail winds through some thick woods but as it emerges into East Dallas it runs straight through some neighborhoods
And that is what makes it so cool and unique. It has a real urban feel to it – although it is straight, smooths and away from traffic. The mostly Hispanic neighborhood, full of brightly colored car repair spots, small churches, and Mexican Restaurants seems to have embraced the trail that cuts through their midst – a lot of the houses along the trail have been cleaned up and repainted and the folks sitting out on their porches smile and wave to people riding by. Music pours out of open windows and bass beats from passing cars.
El Paisano Restaurant along the Santa Fe Trail in Dallas. Menudo!
The trail has a long, slow, uphill climb before it drops down into Deep Ellum and I could tell that I was not feeling very well. I toughed it out, though and did pretty well until I left the trail and was wandering on the streets, cutting over to the restaurant. The seat fell off my bicycle and the best I could do was to jam it back in place. It would slip back off every couple blocks, which made riding uncomfortable and difficult.
I locked my bike to a meter in front and went in and ate. I took a table where I could see my bike – though I can’t imagine anyone stealing that piece of crap. Instead of breakfast, I had a late lunch, and then headed back.
On the trip back up the Santa Fe Trail to White Rock I had a full scale bonk. Bonking is where your blood sugar gets so low that you lose your strength, energy, and will to live. I had eaten a lunch but it wasn’t designed for quick digestion and was actually making me sick. I was having to stop every few minutes to try and find some way to keep the bicycle seat in place – that didn’t help much either. It is pretty exhausting to ride a mountain bike without a seat on it.
But I made it back. It’s humiliating to have so much trouble on such a short bicycle ride, but I’m working on it. I’ve done this before – but I was a lot younger then. I remember the difficulty of getting back into the habit of riding regularly and riding hard – it is the bonk days that do you good. What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.
Actually, I’m complaining too much. It was a nice day out (a little warm – our cool spell is already fading) but I enjoyed riding around Deep Ellum, taking some pictures, and cruising through the ‘hood.
Now, I’m thinking of getting my old Raleigh road bike out and fixing it into riding shape. It’s not as good of an urban bomber as my mountain bike, but it is a much more efficient trail machine. I can start stringing rides together – Preston Ridge, Cottonwood, then White Rock Creek, then White Rock Lake, then Santa Fe Trail. I could ride from the Collin County Border all the way to Downtown Dallas, hang out in Deep Ellum and then ride back. No way could I manage that right now… but maybe… A good goal.
A sliver of a vacant lot along Elm Street was piled with recovered building materials. Cool stuff.
An old water tower rises above Deep Ellum.
An old sign for the Boyd Hotel
The Boyd Hotel is one of many historic buildings in Deep Ellum. Built in 1916, it is one of the oldest hotels still standing in Dallas. This building is one of the few remaining cast iron front buildings. Bonnie and Clyde and many of Deep Ellum’s Blues musicians stayed at the Boyd. Now it’s the home of some upscale offices and a fancy restaurant.
Elm Street
A lot of interesting stuff is painted on the walls.
Club Clearview and Blind Lemon - in the heart of Deep Ellum. The entertainment district has seen better days (several times over the last century) but it is hanging in there. So are we all.
Walking Tall
Another HDR picture of the “Walking Tall” version of the “Travelling Man” series of sculptures down in Deep Ellum here in Dallas.
I had a little accident taking these photos. One of his feet is on a bit of an elevated platform – it looks like a green disk. Do you see it?
I didn’t.
Stepped off and backwards – did protect my camera, though, as I tumbled into some gravel.
You can see one of the new DART stations across the street. I should have waited until a train was going by. Sometime, I’ll go do that.
Bill Chance 