Utter Violence In Every Inch

“I would like to say to those who think of my pictures as serene, whether in friendship or mere observation, that I have imprisoned the most utter violence in every inch of their surface.”
Mark Rothko

 

Artwork, Dallas Area Rapid Transit Spring Valley Station, Richardson, Texas

 

 

Dallas Area Rapid Transit Spring Valley Station, Richardson, Texas

A Bird’s Building Its Own Nest

“There is some of the same fitness in a man’s building his own house that there is in a bird’s building its own nest. Who knows but if men constructed their dwellings with their own hands, and provided food for themselves and families simply and honestly enough, the poetic faculty would be universally developed, as birds universally sing when they are so engaged? But alas! we do like cowbirds and cuckoos, which lay their eggs in nests which other birds have built, and cheer no traveler with their chattering and unmusical notes. Shall we forever resign the pleasure of construction to the carpenter?”
Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Awakening, Part of the Traveling Man series of sculptures, Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas

The Traveling Man Sculptures of Deep Ellum Celebrate Their 10th Anniversary

 

Travelling Man… and a jet, Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas

 

Travelling Man – sculpture east of Downtown Dallas

Bike Riders under the Travelling Man

Travelling Man, Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas

Tourists reflected in a metal bird. Travelling Man Sculpture, Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas

 

The Travelling Man (two versions)
Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas

Love’s Calm Unwavering Flame

“You wake from dreams of doom and–for a moment–you know: beyond all the noise and the gestures, the only real thing, love’s calm unwavering flame in the half-light of an early dawn.”
Dag Hammarskjöld, Markings

Paths, Steinunn Thorarinsdottir, Arts District, Dallas, Texas

If You Believe In Me, I’ll Believe In You

“I always thought they were fabulous monsters!” said the Unicorn. “Is it alive?”
“It can talk,” said Haigha, solemnly.
The Unicorn looked dreamily at Alice, and said, “Talk, child.”
Alice could not help her lips curling up into a smile as she began: “Do you know, I always thought Unicorns were fabulous monsters, too! I never saw one alive before!”
“Well, now that we have seen each other,” said the Unicorn, “if you’ll believe in me, I’ll believe in you. Is that a bargain?”
Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

Winged Unicorn, Grapevine, Texas

Crikey! I’ve Lost My mojo!

Crikey! I’ve lost my mojo!

—-Austin Powers, The Spy Who Shagged Me

Micro Macro Mojo, Sculpture by Ed Carpenter, Richardson, Texas

Micro Macro Mojo

Ed Carpenter

Let Me Embrace Thee, Sour Adversity

Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course.

—-William Shakespeare, The Third part of King Henry the Sixth

Grapevine, Texas

Constant and Unending Euphoria

“Even the memory of cradling her in my arms is pure euphoria. And all that I ask out of life is that it be constant and unending euphoria.”
Roman Payne

Back side of bronze, Grapevine, Texas

Two Dreams About Him After He Died

“I had two dreams about him after he died. I don’t remember the first one all that well but it was about meetin’ him in town somewheres and he give me some money and I think I lost it. But the second one it was like we was both back in older times and I was on horseback goin’ through the mountains of a night. Goin’ through this pass in the mountains. It was cold and there was snow on the ground and he rode past me and kept on goin’. Never said nothin’. He just rode on past and he had this blanket wrapped around him and he had his head down and when he rode past I seen he was carryin’ fire in a horn the way people used to do and I could see the horn from the light inside of it. About the color of the moon. And in the dream I knew that he was goin’ on ahead and that he was fixin’ to make a fire somewhere out there in all that dark and all that cold and I knew that whenever I got there he would be there. And then I woke up.”
Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men

Nightwatchman, Grapevine City Hall, Grapevine, Texas

Nightwatchman, Grapevine City Hall, Grapevine, Texas

     As we walked down Main Street in Grapevine taking photographs for the Winter Dallas Photowalk I couldn’t keep from looking ahead at a giant statue, The Grapevine Nightwatchman, on top of the Grapevine City Hall. It was a giant bronze man in a cowboy hat holding a lantern in the night. By the time we arrived at that part of the street the sun had long set and I couldn’t get a good photo of it – couldn’t do justice anyway. Sometimes it’s like that… you know you have to see it live – but you snap that shutter anyway.
     For some reason I kept thinking of that quote at the end of No Country for Old Men (the book and the movie) about the sheriff’s dream of his father going ahead on horseback carrying fire in a horn. I know the statue had a lantern… not a horn of coals and wasn’t on horseback, but he had that same look of ancient burden and longing – of stoic hopeless responsibility – that I imagine  the sheriff’s father had  in the dream.

Feathered With One Of the Eagles Own Plumes

“The haft of the arrow had been feathered with one of the eagles own plumes. We often give our enemies the means of our own destruction.”
Aesop

Bird sculpture in process, The Cedars, Dallas, Texas

Micro Macro Mojo

“It makes me sad, sad inside, to see a warrior without his pride. ”
Adam Ant

Micro Macro Mojo sculpture (detail), by Ed Carpenter, Greenville & Alma, Richardson, Texas

Micro Macro Mojo