Seaside Transformations
Posted on December 10, 2011
Heat Wave - 2011
There are days, in the afternoon especially, when the sand can burn your feet and the heat rises into your face.
Closer to the water the sand is damp and cooler. Looking down at the shells deposited along the waterline one can contemplate the spiral structure that is home to many creatures of the sea.
Seashore Snailshape -- 2011
Horizon Line
Posted on November 26, 2011
White Birds and the Sea - 2011
Looking out over the calm gulf waters at the distant horizon, the bands of colors across sky and sea are gently meditiative. Objects in the foreground may come unglued and seem to float. It can be worth a few minutes to let them.
A Light at the End - 2011
Two Views of One Place
Posted on November 11, 2011
Behind the Palm Avenue Garage - 2011
The qualities of a built environment have a lot to do with how people feel about a place.
The alley behind the new Palm Avenue parking garage is wide, clean, new, and bordered on each side by towering walls of concrete. Looking down this oversized tunnel one is greeted with a surprising view of the run down and graffiti-graced backside of a Main Street gallery. Are you repulsed or drawn toward the light?
1367 Main - 2011
Singular by the Sea
Posted on October 28, 2011
Red Beware! - 2011
Two singular items. Their colors and shapes speak. Does it matter what they are, or is it better just to wonder what they might be?
Stone Ball in Sand - 2011
The Cross
Posted on October 14, 2011
Kress Building - 2011
The cross is one of humanity’s more ancient and ubiquitous symbols. An early interpretation was as a representation of the intersection between the divine (the vertical line) and the earthly (the horizontal line). In modern times this has been trivialized in our use of the cross on road signs to signify an intersection of roads ahead.
The cross has also represented the division of the world into four elements, the four cardinal points on the compass, man, and of course, the symbolism of the crucifiction associated with Christian religions around the world. While this last may be the most familiar (along with the common road sign), it is worth imagining the many other possible meanings when confronted with the image of a cross in unexpected places.
Repent Sarasota - 2011
Where the Land and Water Meet
Posted on September 30, 2011
Losing Himself -- 2011
The land and sea meet gently along Siesta Key on Florida’s Gulf coast. A wide expanse of white sand tapers gradually toward the water, and the water subtly deepens as one walks away from shore. And sometimes, land and sea intermix when heavy rain, or waves during a falling tide, leave channels in the sand where shallow pools linger until filled in by the tide once again.
These are two portraits of that shifting spot between land and sea, the first in the white heat of a summer afternoon, and the second in the quiet coolness of an early morning with the slanting sunlight illuminating a lone bird and the city in the distance.
Feeding in the Shallows -- 2011
Friends and Performers
Posted on September 13, 2011
Friends - 2011
People enjoying a festival are one of the many things that help define a place and a community. The two men standing next to each other, one in red festival garb, look up the street and communicate as men often do — by standing next to each other saying nothing. And the young girl concentrates on her performance as a majorette, baton in hand, whistle ready, her pleasure in the performing clearly visible to those who look. So much is said in the faces and actions of the people, yet so much is left unsaid.
[Note: These two images are a part of the series from the 2010-11 holiday festival on St. Croix also featured in the previous post.]
Majorette with Whistle - 2011
The Adults’ Parade
Posted on August 29, 2011
The Parade, a Word, a Touch -- 2011
These are two of a series of images from the Adults’ Parade — the culmination of the Christmas festival on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. If you enjoy a party, can find the shade, drink beer in the afternoon, and move to the earsplitting sounds of reggae, soca and calypso, you will like the Adults’ Parade and its genuine atmosphere of a community celebration.
But with all that, there is still something mysterious and inaccessible about it. Perhaps it is how the powerful family and community bonds and shared unspoken values manifest themselves in the heat and dust, the colors and sounds of the parade. And the setting — the ramshackle remains of an old colonial-era town — speaks to a shared past for those whose families have lived there for generations. Whatever it is, no matter how long one from the continent lives in the islands, there will always be a part of the culture that remains foreign and a mystery that demands respect.
Beauty Queen -- 2011
Back Doors and Alleys
Posted on August 15, 2011
Toy Lab - 2011
What is it with back doors and the alley? Utilitarian and faded, sometimes littered with discarded goods, a garbage can, maybe a place to park, the alley beckons with a bit of mystery. Unlike the front door’s public face, the alley may offer a glimpse behind the curtain, a slightly different view of the life of the city.
White Hot -2011
Water Features
Posted on August 3, 2011
The Bridge - 2011
Water can be a violent and stormy sea or calm and meditative, a soft yet powerful presence reflecting the sky above. Full of life, essential to life, water moves and changes like a living thing.
These images pay homage to some of these qualities. The calm waters of Sarasota Bay spanned by the delicate line of the Ringling Bridge, and the rich freshwater swamp where a primitive reptile might emerge out of the muck — both are an invitation to reflect.
Primordial Soup - 2011
Doors to Different Realities
Posted on July 22, 2011
Vault Door -- 2011
There was a greeting card with the picture of a dog by a screen door with the caption, “A door is something the dog wants to be on the other side of.” Anyone with a dog knows the truth of that. If he’s in, he wants to be out — and if he’s out he wants in.
People, on the other hand, sometimes feel more ambivalent about entering doors. While curiosity or the desire for something may urge us on, passing through a door takes us into a different world, a different reality that may not be entirely comfortable. If we think about it, we may hesitate before passing through that door — or like the dog, we may want out as soon as we are in.
Liquor Door -- 2011
Readers in Flesh and Bronze
Posted on July 12, 2011
A Boy, His Book and His Dog - 2011
Large white tapered pillars support the upper level of the Selby Public Library in downtown Sarasota. The pillars create a shaded arcade on all four sides of the building. Near a side entrance that overlooks a small park is a lifesize bronze sculpture of a boy reading with his dog beside him on the bench. It is a romantic image inviting one to enjoy the adventure of books.
On many days there are also flesh and blood readers sitting or leaning in the shade of those large pillars — perhaps waiting for the library to open, or just enjoying the shade. Appearing somehow less romantic, one wonders if any of these readers are the literate homeless and unemployed.
Shadowed Reader - 2011
St. Croix — Hotel Caravelle Artwork
Mocko Jumbies
Donald Diddams 