Sunday, December 30, 2007

An Afternoon in Brooklyn


It was back around 1987 or '88 when I first discovered the sculpture garden in back of the Brooklyn Museum. Unlike the sculpture garden in Manhattan at MoMA, this was a true urban sculpture garden: All the carvings and ironworks were remnants salvaged from long-lost buildings. Surrounding the courtyard of the then little-used rear entrance, dozens and dozens of gargoyles, pediments, columns and busts burst from the ivy-covered ground. There was a storage building crammed with more, and another fenced yard with the overflow.

Here was where you came to see some of the last pieces of Pennsylvania Station, columns that supported the lintels of demolished Fifth Avenue mansions, and decorative stonework that once embellished the exteriors of other notable as well as anonymous New York buildings.



Sadly, the Museum's extensive renovation plans of the last few years have shuffled the sculpture garden's contents to a fenced-off plot in the parking lot. For years now, the stones have been sitting in the weeds, some on rotting wood pallets, others left to absorb moisture and lichen from the ground. Viewing these artifacts is difficult at best; impossible for most.

Conditions have improved, though, since the last time I was here. Last time the Statue of the Liberty warehouse was horizontal on the ground, the horse and rider above gazing forlornly down upon her. She's since been uprighted and repainted, facing the courtyard and the allegorical figure of Night from Penn Station--



--who stands now with her back to the museum wall. A few other pieces are still in the courtyard, though precious few have any provenance or documentation. Too many pieces are off limits in the undergrowth, seen only by the mournful rider, and I wonder whatever became of what seemed to be the hundreds I remember from fifteen years ago.



The storage building and the additional yard are gone too, turned into parking lots and landscaping over the years. The remaining stones sink into the vegetation behind the fences, some pooling with water, most obscured with vines. What now?

This is the plaque at the base of the Liberty statue that opens this post. (Click on it for a larger and more legible version.)


And for the sake of history, above is a photo of the statue that I made in 1985, when it was in its original location eight stories above West 64th Street.



Saturday, December 29, 2007

Katrina


Katrina doesn't usually consent to be photographed, but her sister more than makes up for her when I see them. On this Boxing Day, though, she allowed me to take some pictures while she examined her new guitar.

Friday, December 28, 2007

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Friday, December 21, 2007

National Gallery of Canada


The sculpture Maman by Louise Bourgeois
at the main entrance to the Canadian National Gallery

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Monday, December 10, 2007

Government-Sanctioned Cathouse


A couple of residents of the Parliament Hill cat condos contemplate the winter morning's sun.

Tree Rat on a Fencepost


One of a number of pigeons that tolerated my pestering them in the snow. Briefly.

City Barn


The city of Ottawa has a working farm, the Ferme Expérimentale Centrale, just a few kilometers from downtown. This barn is along Prince of Wales Drive near the Fletcher Wildlife Garden.

Parliament in the Snow



Ottawa was hit with close to eighteen inches of snow on December 3rd - 4th. This was what Parliament Hill looked like on Monday morning. The second image is the Centennial Flame.

Keep Right


Street signs direct you around Ottawa, Ontario, the capital of Canada. This somewhat alarming one merely points to the War Museum and the Museum of Civilization.
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The Canadian War Museum, towards the end of the last exhibit, has a low counter with chairs and pre-addressed postcards for visitors to fill out and mail to the organization of their choice. Idly I reached out and took one from the top of a stack; this was what I found written on the card I'd selected:


I felt it best to leave it.
.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Beginning at The End

The sun rises behind the Montauk lighthouse on Friday, November 23, 2007

.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Lolcat Legs

I invite you all to make a lolcat caption for this shot of Legs:


For those of you unsure of what a lolcat is, go here

Monday, November 12, 2007

The Zipper - 1987





This has long been one of my favorite images, made at the Valley Stream Village Green on a hot summer night in 1987. Shot on Kodachrome film, scanned on a Crosfield drum scanner at 120 dpi to a Macintosh Power PC, then burned to a CD-ROM in March of 2001.




Librarian Unbound

Or should that be 'unwound'?

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

A Few More Signs...



What is it about these 99 cent stores that they can't handle the concept of ninety-nine cents?
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Another victim of the computar virus. I'll bet they've got chocolate micro-chips in the ice cream.
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Here's an awning that's just crying out for a set of gratuitous quotation marks.
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The patron saint of melodious sound.
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Mohels in Brooklyn use specialized equipment.
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Right.


Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Black and White Betsy


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Two from January of 2006

Sign of the Apocalypse, Now

I'm not sure that trying to use this image with any inspirational prayer to reconcile a Christian message is the marketing stratagem they want to pursue.
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Monday, November 5, 2007

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Kilroy Cat

Tonight she was in the cardboard box near the sink. Funny thing is, Legs (below), whom she professes to despise, has recently taken to hanging out in the same box.
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I think they've got something going on when we're not around.


Monday, October 29, 2007