Out at sea a single clarinet begins to play, a droll melody joined in on after a few bars by guitars and mandolins. Birds huddle bright-eyed on the beach. Katje’s heart lightens, a little, at the sound.
—-Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow
Travelling Man, Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas
“Do we really want to travel in hermetically sealed popemobiles through the rural provinces of France, Mexico and the Far East, eating only in Hard Rock Cafes and McDonalds? Or do we want to eat without fear, tearing into the local stew, the humble taqueria’s mystery meat, the sincerely offered gift of a lightly grilled fish head? I know what I want. I want it all. I want to try everything once.”
― Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
Travelling Man… and a jet, Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas
“The statue was of a nude woman playing a slide trombone. It was entitled, enigmatically, Evelyn and Her Magic Violin.”
― Kurt Vonnegut Jr., The Sirens of Titan
Sculptures, Poydras Street, New Orleans
“How can I be substantial if I do not cast a shadow? I must have a dark side also If I am to be whole.”
― C.G. Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul
Target Rack
“All right,
Go ahead!
What’s in a name?
I guess I’ll be locked into
As much as I’m locked out of!”
― Edna St. Vincent Millay, A Few Figs from Thistles
Bowls and Tacos, Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas
“These people were content with their environment, and felt no particular objection to an impersonal steel and concrete landscape, no qualms about the invasion of their privacy by government agencies and organizations, and if anything welcoming these intrusions, using them for their own purposes. These people were the first to master a new kind of 20th century life. They thrived on the rapid turnover of acquaintances, the lack of involvement with others, and the total self-sufficiency of lives which, needing nothing, were never disappointed. Alternatively, their real needs might emerge later.”
― J.G. Ballard, High-Rise
Fort Worth, Texas
“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.”
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden
The view from the parking lot as I go home from work. Dallas, Texas
Clouds, sky, and steel. There are things of man and things of nature. Sometimes there is beauty in both.
“The lesson? To respond to the unexpected and hurtful behavior of others with something more than a wipe of the glasses, to see it as a chance to expand our understanding, even if, as Proust warns is, ‘when we discover the true lives of other people, the real world beneath the world of appearance, we get as many surprises as on visiting a house of plain exterior which is full of hidden treasures, torture-chambers or skeletons.”
― Alain de Botton, How Proust Can Change Your Life
McKinney, Texas
“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.
“ Give up all hope, all illusion, all desire..I’ve tried. I’ve tried and still I desire, I still desire not to desire and hope to be without hope and have the illusion I can be without illusions..Give up, I say. Give up everything, including the desire to be saved.”
― Luke Rhinehart, The Dice Man
Decatur, Texas
Bill Chance 