"Words Were Spoken" SEPTEMBER 11 2010
It was the year 1998, and I was about to take off for the train into the loop. My usual routine around summer months then was to awake at 6 am and walk a half a block to the beach -past the public tennis courts and bicycle paths and walking trail as I walked by miles and miles of mammoth sunflowers which a woman in the neighborhood cared for and grew herself.
There used to be a street sign there a block from the beach that said: "Watch out for dangerous waves"
I loved it there, watching the sun rise, up, high. Many people who lived near by: walking their dogs, and saying a friendly good morning. Dogs were only allowed on the beach until 9 am or was it 8 am,..? and then the life guards rowed their boats in for the day of swimmers. There was one woman who was in there in her 90's that swam there every summer day. She was glowing and old and beautiful as she lead the way in her own life every day. I alway thought she should be a face that lead the way to our many photographic advertisments and even film iconography in the issues of beauty for women in a modern thoughtful world..
The water was tested for pollution every day of every year in many places in the more than 30 mile stretch of public beach front. One part of the beach front even contained a play house, though I never did get to see a performance there.
Each morning I'd walk the beach for five minutes while stretching. I'd fill my pockets full of tiny pebbles of sand washed sea glass before long. Green and blue mostly. Then I'd find the same giant slab of rock out into the water just enough,. which I climbed upon to sit for another five minutes in the sun as I gazed out into what the seems an ocean, though it was a, vast, expansive, great lake full of fresh water, no wales or poka-dotted tails .. "never seeing anything more than blue sky" and "the multitude of fantastical colour" reflected in facets of water which cut light and bend it into prisms of a world unknown completely.
Back at my English Basement Flat with beautiful courtyards, with a garden, and clay tile roof tops, and a crew of building attendance, which I knew like brothers -I ate breakfast and polished myself up for a long grandeur of a day. Off to the train stop, pick up coffee, and; say hi to a woman standing on the street selling flowers that people like to buy to brighten their day at their desks, some times cubicals, and also people really liked flowers to simply give to friends to spriten a friends day and throughout their week.
I'd also say hi to Yessmin, who was working behind the coffee counter to put her son through school. There was a man there some mornings -I'd buy him a sandwich as he was really going through hard times on most days and didn't really want to talk about what plagued him and really didn‘t ever speak to anyone..
If I took my car instead of the train and parked in the loop, there was a man at the other coffee shop up the road who was a doctor of medicine and served me coffee from behind the counter. Some days he’d surprise me with a special something to eat that he knew I liked. Like a Half Moon Cookie. He was from India and could not work as a doctor in the United States, and well, at least he had a reasonably priced place to live and work that paid for his life. I was trying to help him get into a program with one of the hospitals so that he could use his knowledge again in what was a foreign land to him, where the language of English and a decree from an American Universtiy was very important.
and well, let me add: that perhaps he should have been paid a doctors fee for the healthy feeling he brought to my heart and my thoughts for just simply being thoughtful and continuing to treat people in a very spirited human way. We need more of that everywhere.
Hundreds of people on the platform @7:15 am.
“There are 9 million or more people in the city and surrounding areas of Chicago. It is a large number of people but not a very large place at all really. Yet the hearts of people are as broad shouldered as is spoken of in fine literature.”
On this day, like every day, we loaded the train together and most times it was so full that people actually touched each other -pressed together rather tightly, and well. -often shoulder to shoulder.
-and when the train stopped abruptly there were enough of us to hold each other up from falling. "no need for a trip to 6 flags" the fun was all right here..
and then -
I looked to my left where there was a man trying to say something to me. Surrounded and always talking to people on the train, I looked at him curiously and with kind question. He was a man that was not too tall and very proud,. his clothes were very plain and he had a very nice face. His thick eyebrows turned down and I listened. He spoke Spanish. I didn't understand a word of it except to count to seven that I learned in grade school with many other words forgotten, but I continued to listen. The minute I began to listen, he broke out
-talking and talking and as a minute passed, "job" espanial, children, food…? I didn't know what to do, as it seemed that he was pleading with me. And just then, a tall, and very polished, kind, soft spoken, man, turned his back from us, all the way around to say something.. he looked at the nice man from Mexico’s face and said -"Here" -writing down an address and phone number. The tall mans pen pointed -and kept pointing towards the paper with intent .. "they will give you a job!" "work"! The tall man said very firmly. Everyone in our train cab smiled with great relief. Including me....
BLACK SHEEP
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
MORE ARTS I
March 23rd, 2010...
there is much more to write though I have several deadlines to meet.
I will say this for now: My trip to the city of Chicago was magnificent as I shot more than 2,000 photographs and have a new exhibition for 2011 in store. While I was away, a friend of mine from Europe had been reading my blog and that was a great surprise... upon my return, I found this photo in an e-mail with no words written, and that was an even greater surprise. It took me several days to figure out that it was in reference to my entry below and was very sweet really... THANK YOU!
I am also thankful for my many other great events (big and not so big, like daffodils in the spring outside the door) , and even more thankful for my many nice friends from around the world................ read the entry below
_______________________________________
It's January 2010
It snowed today and the cold white blanket covered everything in East Tennessee including my memory of the Lake Front near the loop, right out side the doors of the school of the art institute of Chicago in the winter. Sometimes it's so cold for so long that the lake front begins to look like frozen parts of Alaska where the ocean becomes a mile or more thick in ice caps. I used to walk outside the school during breaks from classes just to catch a glimpse of the magnificent Canadian Geese who crowd beautifully french influenced park scapes, and the geese flew in by the thousands. Digital photographs were not big then and terribly expensive, and would have been nice, as I had always wanted to shoot pictures of the gorgeous plentiful geese. I did have a great camera then, which I had owned for twenty or so years, though was stolen after I had shot some of my completed work at the school.
It was unfortunate that I never took those pictures of the geese, but soon, next week, I have a great digital camera and will be in the magnificent mile for a week for a fine arts conference at SAIC. I hope for plenty of snow and I'll be ready to shoot everything in sight.
When I moved to the Chicago area, I didn't know a soul, though I knew, that for some reason I was supposed to be in Chicago at that time for the arts scene and of course to attain my schooling at the age of 30.
I had left a whole career behind and just went for it.
Well, you know the old saying: "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times." / For me really, it was the best of times, as even driving into the loop everyday on Lakeshore Drive was amazing then, as my eye followed the skyline of the great city and I thought, "only a city of artist could have created this skyline, and of course created this city." I learned very early on that if there was something that you were interested in, that there was surely a large group of people somewhere in the city that converged to talk about / create / be active in / or celebrate, what ever the subject was you had interest in. It's a fantastic city in that regard, and in most regards really as the artist are: political, scientific, activists, organized, theatrical, musical, and even religious about what they (including me, myself, & I) do and who they are in relationship to the world.
Even if you don't know anyone and your sitting in just the right cafe', it isn't unusual to join into the group and become apart of life at that moment in time and make great friends. It wasn't long after I moved to the city that my phone machine was jammed with messages from just meeting people on the train as I met people with common interests nearly everyday and exchanged numbers. Once, when I was working for a brokerage firm, I was given tickets to the symphony and I didn't know anyone to ask to join me that evening, so, I treated myself to a good meal out near Symphony Center in a sort of medium range eatery, and there was a group of people that I met that invited me to there table that also were going to the symphony that evening.
My first few month in Chicago, I worked briefly for David Brenner the actor. He lived several blocks up the street from me and often I'd drive him to the airport as he was flying in and out of LA. He has wonderful children and an adorable wife. They took quite a bit of interest in your career I remember. I was class mates with a director at FOX News, as she was finishing up her degree after beginning at DePaul University. The Director was finishing up her degree with her last classes at Columbia College and I was just starting out in my first year in school. And there we were in the same class. In the arts, some of the finest teachers are creative people who have built their reputation in the area they teach by working at their skills, knowledge, and expertise within their careers outside of teaching, and they bring with that worlds of knowledge and applied experience. Within the city of Chicago, there are great things to learn....
there is much more to write though I have several deadlines to meet.
I will say this for now: My trip to the city of Chicago was magnificent as I shot more than 2,000 photographs and have a new exhibition for 2011 in store. While I was away, a friend of mine from Europe had been reading my blog and that was a great surprise... upon my return, I found this photo in an e-mail with no words written, and that was an even greater surprise. It took me several days to figure out that it was in reference to my entry below and was very sweet really... THANK YOU!
I am also thankful for my many other great events (big and not so big, like daffodils in the spring outside the door) , and even more thankful for my many nice friends from around the world................ read the entry below
_______________________________________
It's January 2010
It snowed today and the cold white blanket covered everything in East Tennessee including my memory of the Lake Front near the loop, right out side the doors of the school of the art institute of Chicago in the winter. Sometimes it's so cold for so long that the lake front begins to look like frozen parts of Alaska where the ocean becomes a mile or more thick in ice caps. I used to walk outside the school during breaks from classes just to catch a glimpse of the magnificent Canadian Geese who crowd beautifully french influenced park scapes, and the geese flew in by the thousands. Digital photographs were not big then and terribly expensive, and would have been nice, as I had always wanted to shoot pictures of the gorgeous plentiful geese. I did have a great camera then, which I had owned for twenty or so years, though was stolen after I had shot some of my completed work at the school.
It was unfortunate that I never took those pictures of the geese, but soon, next week, I have a great digital camera and will be in the magnificent mile for a week for a fine arts conference at SAIC. I hope for plenty of snow and I'll be ready to shoot everything in sight.
When I moved to the Chicago area, I didn't know a soul, though I knew, that for some reason I was supposed to be in Chicago at that time for the arts scene and of course to attain my schooling at the age of 30.
I had left a whole career behind and just went for it.
Well, you know the old saying: "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times." / For me really, it was the best of times, as even driving into the loop everyday on Lakeshore Drive was amazing then, as my eye followed the skyline of the great city and I thought, "only a city of artist could have created this skyline, and of course created this city." I learned very early on that if there was something that you were interested in, that there was surely a large group of people somewhere in the city that converged to talk about / create / be active in / or celebrate, what ever the subject was you had interest in. It's a fantastic city in that regard, and in most regards really as the artist are: political, scientific, activists, organized, theatrical, musical, and even religious about what they (including me, myself, & I) do and who they are in relationship to the world.
Even if you don't know anyone and your sitting in just the right cafe', it isn't unusual to join into the group and become apart of life at that moment in time and make great friends. It wasn't long after I moved to the city that my phone machine was jammed with messages from just meeting people on the train as I met people with common interests nearly everyday and exchanged numbers. Once, when I was working for a brokerage firm, I was given tickets to the symphony and I didn't know anyone to ask to join me that evening, so, I treated myself to a good meal out near Symphony Center in a sort of medium range eatery, and there was a group of people that I met that invited me to there table that also were going to the symphony that evening.
My first few month in Chicago, I worked briefly for David Brenner the actor. He lived several blocks up the street from me and often I'd drive him to the airport as he was flying in and out of LA. He has wonderful children and an adorable wife. They took quite a bit of interest in your career I remember. I was class mates with a director at FOX News, as she was finishing up her degree after beginning at DePaul University. The Director was finishing up her degree with her last classes at Columbia College and I was just starting out in my first year in school. And there we were in the same class. In the arts, some of the finest teachers are creative people who have built their reputation in the area they teach by working at their skills, knowledge, and expertise within their careers outside of teaching, and they bring with that worlds of knowledge and applied experience. Within the city of Chicago, there are great things to learn....
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