Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas
Skull
Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas
Tag Archives: street photography
Harmonic Vivarium and Raleigh Technium
Art by Judith Lea Perkins – Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas
Judith Lea Perkins by alexandra olivia, on Flickr
Painted Steel Menagerie
Cottonwood Art Festival, Richardson, Texas
The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity… and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.
—-William Blake
Curves of Metal
The Dallas Piece, Dallas City Hall Plaza
Henry Moore
1978
“How important can it be that I suffer and think? My presence in this world will disturb a few tranquil lives and will unsettle the unconscious and pleasant naiveté of others. Although I feel that my tragedy is the greatest in history—greater than the fall of empires—I am nevertheless aware of my total insignificance. I am absolutely persuaded that I am nothing in this universe; yet I feel that mine is the only real existence.”
― Emil Cioran, On the Heights of Despair
It’s Not Easy Being Green
DART rail station, Dallas Texas, on the way to the St. Patrick’s Day Parade
Saint Patrick’s Day
I wasn’t going to the parade... or any other drunken St. Patrick’s day stuff. I wanted to go downtown to meet my friends at Klyde Warren Park for a Writer’s Marathon downtown in the Art Museum. My intention was to ride the DART train downtown with my bicycle and then ride home (with the strong south wind at my back) afterward.
There would be big crowds though, so I intended to go early. Unfortunately, I had a late night, so I didn’t get up and around on time and didn’t leave the house until eight thirty AM or so. To save time, I decided to drive to a train station instead of leaving home on my bike. When I pulled into the Forest Lane Dart Station (the Cottonwood bike trail goes through there, so I could ride back) I saw the parking lot almost full and a thick crowd up on the elevated platform. Most of them were hauling coolers, bags of food, and folding chairs So I knew I wouldn’t be able to get on that train with my bike.
I walked up there, a little disappointed, and waited in line at the ticket machines to get my day transit pass. It took forever – the folks in front of me were not experienced train riders and they had a terrible time figuring out the ticket machines… plus a lot of them seemed to be drinking already, at nine-thirty in the morning. When I finally had my pass in hand (I checked, it took me less than thirty seconds to buy mine) I waited in the growing crowd for a train.
The next two trains came through the station and when the doors opened we were presented with the hellish vision of a compressed cube of green covered humanity. The cars were literally packed full. Not a single person from our station could get on the trains.
So I bailed. There was surprisingly little traffic on the highway and I was able to get down to one of my “secret” free parking spots in Deep Ellum. I could ride my bike over to Klyde Warren from there – won’t be able to get very many miles of exercise in and I’d have to make sure and get back to my car by sundown (I didn’t want to risk these streets after dark on a bicycle with all the celebrants driving).
Now, next year I want to go to the parade with my good camera. I am disappointed that I wasn’t at the opening door on the DART train with my camera ready – that was quite something to look at.
Feed the Dragon
Crow Museum of Asian Art, Dallas, Texas
Text on the Streets
As you move around, keep an eye out for the mysterious text that surrounds us. Here and there, in the odd corners and foggy backwaters of the city, there are messages. What do they mean? Who know? Who cares.
Stuck on a plywood-covered window. Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas
You are Now! Yes. Is this real? This moment, that you have chosen to co-create? I know not. What I do know is that everything in your life has led you to this exact moment in space and time. Yes your fantastic being of molecular vibrations slipping into the NOW. You, co-creating the awakening of your inner Shazam-Samurai! You, catapulting your nitro-burnin’, fuel-injected, Hootenany, Howlin’ Wolf, Love dance into the future of NOW! Yes! Yes! Yes!
Shazam!
Stencil (one of several) on the Santa Fe Bicycle Trail, Dallas, Texas
Sign attached to bicycle, French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana
Castin Call
Ride a Blind Camel
Ladies 18+ only
Call 229-9982
To play 4 Dominican Nuns
Boston Bank Job
(CIA Classified)
Libya Gold Assasins
Call Butch Cassidy Detective Agency
Cathedonia
Along the walls near the Deep Ellum Green Line DART station are some odd, wonderful, and striking portraits, all marked Cathedonia.
These are the work of a local artist, Cathey Miller. She does a lot of varied work, including professional scene painting and such.
From her online bio:
Since 2001, the subject of my personal artwork has been the mythical planet of Cathedonia, a place I invented and populated with only my closest friends . My amateur studies in particle physics convinced me that I existed simultaneously in a parallel universe, flying around in a spaceship, drinking big gulps, and saving the earth from monsters.
My paintings are portrait based explorations into a symbol rich outer space environment. These images are painterly, colorful, and communicate Cathedonian ideals of truth, beauty, girl power, and heroism in the face of gigantic eagle headed flying intergalactic lobsters.
Entrance on Exposition
Bait and Chomp
In Dallas, Deep Ellum is known for many things and, high among these, is the public art. One man’s mural is another’s graffiti – but in Deep Ellum, colorful art rules the brick.
Yeah, right.
It has been that way for a long time. I remember going down there almost two decades ago and watching a group paint some monument-like panels erected under the highway. Each artist had a different stele to paint – all different sizes and shapes. I watched them work with jealous desire – wanting to paint something worthwhile but aware that I lacked the talent.
There was a tunnel where Good Latimer Expressway coursed below some railroad tracks which had been painted in a long string of bizarre panels. It raised quite a bit of concern when the tunnel was torn out and the street raised to ground level along where the DART station now sits.
The capstone of the old tunnel is used as a backrest for one of the Traveling Man sculptures.
Now there are as many murals as ever down there. Everything from strangeness to music and back.
Last weekend I took advantage of some surprisingly good weather to go on a long bike ride and one stretch took me through Deep Ellum. I had a compact camera in a little bag on my handlebars, so I stopped and took some shots of some of the murals. These are across from the Deep Ellum Dart station – oddly enough not far from where the old Good Latimer tunnel used to be.
So today, here are a couple works by Amber Campagna, “Bait” and “Chomp.”
“Bait” by Amber Campagna. The paint is falling off the wall – which makes it especially interesting in an odd way.
A little way farther down the wall is “Chomp”, also by Amber Campagna
Bill Chance 