“No matter how buried it gets, or lost you feel, you must promise me, that you will hold on to hope and keep it alive. We have to be greater than what we suffer. My wish for you is to become hope. People need that.”
―
Spiderman Piñata, Kidd Springs Park, Oak Cliff, Dallas, Texas
Spiderman Piñata, Kidd Springs Park, Oak Cliff, Dallas, Texas
“While serving one of his countless sentences of imprisonment, he was given ex-wrestler Paul as cell companion. Paul was at that time a dock worker; he was in jail for having, during a strike riot, remembered his professional past and applied the grip known as a double Nelson to a policeman. This grip consisted in passing one’s arms through the opponent’s armpits from behind, locking one’s hands behind his neck, and pressing his head down until the neck vertebra began to crack. In the ring this had always brought him considerable applause, but he had learned to his regret that in the class struggle the double Nelson was not done.”
― Darkness at Noon
Luchadores, Oak Cliff, Dallas, Texas
“We should meet in another life, we should meet in air, me and you.”
―
Found by a photobooth,
Molly’s At the Market, French Quarter, New Orleans
After they had communicated with each other, after having found each other, only over the waves of the internet – the two of them finally flew from each coast, West and East, to meet in New Orleans. It was like finding a long-lost sister… or an unimagined lover, or both. They spent the evening in a French Quarter bar drinking frozen Irish Coffees and gushing at each other. After texting and Skyping so much, years worth – they worried that there wouldn’t be anything left to say to each other… but the opposite was true. So many truths, so many secrets… even a few sweet, sweet, lies.
When they finally kissed in the photo booth behind the bar it was like a jolt of static electricity.
But what did they really know about each other? What do any of us.
Bullfighting is the only art in which the artist is in danger of death and in which the degree of brilliance in the performance is left to the fighter’s honor.—-Ernest Hemingway
Running of the Bulls, New Orleans, Louisiana
“The greatest artist does not have any concept
Which a single piece of marble does not itself contain
Within its excess, though only
A hand that obeys the intellect can discover it.”
― I Sonetti Di Michelangelo: The 78 Sonnets of Michelangelo with Verse Translation
Birth II, by Arthur Williams, Dallas, Texas
Twice over the last decades (2013, and 2019) I have stopped at the Lover’s Lane Red Line DART station to photograph the sculpture there. It’s really cool looking, and hard to find – I imagine it was once more obvious, but the construction of the DART station and the expansion of Central Expressway cut it off. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a plaque or other sign and had no idea who the sculpture was done by or what its name was. It seems to have been neglected over the years, it is getting a bit ragged looking.
Finally, I dug out a book I bought used a long time ago and have found very useful: A Comprehensive Guide to Outdoor Sculpture In Texas by Carol Morris Little. The sculptures are listed by the name of their sculptors (which I did not know) so it took a bit of page-turning, but I found it.
From the book:
Arthur Williams
American, born 1942Birth II 1983
Abstract, 7′ x 15′ x7′ 8″ ; welded and pressed steel
Location: 6688 North Central Expressway
Funding: Sullivan CorporationComments: Sculpture by Arthur Williams appears in public and private collections throughout the United States. In addition to large steel and cast-bronze sculptures, Williams carves alabaster, marble, and wood. This work and his monumental installation in Galveston are from his Birth series.
It’s cool to finally know something about this sculpture – will have to look for its twin the next time I’m in Galveston.
Birth II, Arthur Williams, Dallas, Texas
“The machine which at first blush seems a means of isolating man from the great problems of nature, actually plunges him more deeply into them. As for the peasant so for the pilot, dawn and twilight become events of consequence. His essential problems are set him by the mountain, the sea, the wind. Alone before the vast tribunal of the tempestuous sky, the pilot defends his mails and debates on terms of equality with those three elemental divinities.”
― Wind, Sand and Stars
“Books don’t offer real escape, but they can stop a mind scratching itself raw.”
― Cloud Atlas
Escape Pod, Galveston, Texas
“The heart apparently doesn’t stop that easily.”
― Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
Renovation Yard, Dallas, Texas
“There was only this one lamp-post. Behind was the great scoop of darkness, as if all the night were there.”
― Sons and Lovers
Downtown Dallas, along the streetcar line
“Vultures are the most righteous of birds: they do not attack even the smallest living creature.”
―
Dallas Zoo
Bill Chance 