Yellow with Gray Triangle

Cracks and spaulding developed in the curbing near where I work.

Workmen came out a month or so ago to make repairs,

They semi-carefully cut the damaged concrete curbing away

with diamond-tipped saw blades, then filled the

resulting gash with of mending concrete.

Here, against the older and new bits of yellow paint,

the triangle helps to create both a bit of tension

and attention for a bit of curbside art.

The repaired bit shown below was done

several years ago. The workmen either realized 

the triangle would make a stronger repair,

or that two cuts only made for

a quicker job, requiring less work. 

Along the Gray Divide

As the sun rose over Indy on Saturday, I walked in the shadow 

of the Herron School of Art, where the rift in the sidewalk reminded me 

of a map of the Mississippi River. Or maybe, looked at horizontally, 

it could have been the remains of ocean waves, 

breaking onto the sandy beach. Or not.

Maybe one side was just shiny, while the other was not.

Textured Tuesday: Theme and Variation

There is something about the pattern 

in the rubber base of the traffic barrel that 

echoes the shapes of the concrete 

chunks lying just beside it.

Concrete Evidence

A section of a street near my home is having its surface ground down, 

then repaired and repaved. When this has been completed, 

new curbs are being installed, as needed. Here, one can see evidence 

of the heavy equipment used to perform the work; 

the tread marks of the dump trucks and grinders left behind 

where they were driven through the wet conctete slurry. 

Textured Tuesday: Landscape

A tree branches off to the left in the foreground

of this rainy day landscape, as the horizon line is broken up 

a bit by a grove of trees just emerging from the mist.

Otherwise, it's seams in a bit of sidewalk.

Textured Tuesday: Green and Gray

It had rained overnight, but the only remaining 

hint was the damp outline around 

this fallen leaf. I loved the green shades against 

the striated concrete sidewalk.

It's Spring, the Cranes Have Arrived

The downtown area is bustling with several construction sites 

at various stages of progress. Among them is this site just north of the

Capitol Building which will be made up of apartments and

a large grocery, a much-needed amenity for the residents of the

many downtown apartments and condos.

At the end of last year, the site had been scraped, 

preparing it for this orchard of concrete pillars that will grow upward,

acquiring floors, walls, and HVAC systems that will eventually

become homes. If you look at the tops of the pillars, you can see

the little re-bar shoots that will have concrete poured 

over them to become additional levels.

As ever, I was enthralled by the sight of men working in a hole.

They were removing old transformers that had been part

of an earlier building on that site.

What had initially caught my eye, of course, was the huge crane 

that had been installed on the site last winter. There are numerous 

other cranes that move in and out for various tasks, such as

the removal of the transformers. The top image pleases me

because of all the textures and patterns in the picture.

None of them is decorative, all are functional, primarily

adding strength to what would otherwise be a flat piece of steel,

and allow the poured concrete to flow around and amid

the various components.

It seems as though the cranes are always around, 

but they seem to take on additional urgency as the weather warms.

It may be that the people are more visible; like pilot birds in service

to their host, they attend to the needs of the cranes

in order to obtain what they themselves need.

Strata

I went back to the highway this morning to see the newly laid pavement.

(Really, I just had to cross the road on my way to get an early

morning latte.) As usual, I was struck by the textures carved into

the old pavement by the concrete saws and grading equipment, and

the differing colors between the old layers of cement and asphalt.

Here looking like a sun flare, the tarry adhesive has been splashed

onto the retaining wall. Centuries from now, if the warring human species 

survives its own stupidity, archaeologists will be spinning in their

pith helmets trying to figure out the drink cups, water bottles,

and beer cans thrown into the site by workers and

passers-by. But what about the rocks? Will it matter that the material

used to make the roadbed has come from a different place

than where it was found? Will they confuse the sometimes

beautiful textures for art (as I do)? 

Eh, they won't give a fuck.

Dressed for Work

All last week, street crews had been working in Speedway to pour 

concrete and lay brick for new sidewalks and curbing.

Drivers carefully made their way through the construction zones

in efforts to avoid the human traffic cones working

all along the way. This morning, I went for a long walk,

during which I happened to look up to see fairly new cones,

clad in reflective tape, marking work in progress 

at the corner of 16th Street and Lynhurst drive.

Of course, I took a couple pictures.

Paired with the grey of the grooved concrete

and the white stripes, how could I resist

their handsome, orange presence?

Bright Red and Fifty Shades of Gray

You know, when erotica is available as a mass market paperback,

displayed on the shelves of my neighborhood grocer, we've

reached some sort of watershed in this country.

Whether it's a continuing slide into a nadir of literary standards

or an opening of tolerance of expression, I can't say.

Years ago, I always felt a bit embarrassed when I 

entered a local used book store. One entire wall was covered

by romance novels with pale pink spines. Since women generally 

prefer to visualize their erotica rather than actually see it, those

books were/are the woman's equivalent of 

men's pornographic videos.

However, one man I knew read the books for amusement

(he said). Secretly, though, he imagined himself in the role 

of rescuing hero, the prince whose "sword of 

hardened steel" left his lady in a dazed swoon,

grateful for his attentions.

I wonder how many of those books are actually written by men?

Textured Tuesday: One Brick

Imbedded in the sidewalk, this one brick emphasized 

both the gritty texture of the sidewalk and its own burnt

clay surface.


UPDATE: During my walk this afternoon, 
I happened to meet the property owner where this brick lives.
When I asked him its significance, he told me it was one 
of the bricks that originally paved the Speedway.
- Slw, March16, 2012

Sidewalk of Smiles and Stars

On Sunday night in Los Angeles, the year's Academy Awards 

will be handed out to the hard-working people who are

employed in the motion picture industry. In addition to the

actors and actresses who form the front line of our 

consciousness, are scores of people who go unrecognized

by most of us, but who may be among the joyful

few to receive one of the golden statuettes.

While their frozen smiles will not likely make the morning news, 

and their stars will not be embedded into the sidewalk outside Grauman's

Chinese Theater, their pride will not be felt any less, 

nor their achievements diminished.

Here's to the folks who surround the stars, who get the film

onto the screen for the rest of the world to enjoy. 

Concrete Ideas

On my way Wednesday to meet some friends for lunch,

I just about fell into this bit of sidewalk work. 

Damn, I love it when the concrete contractors do all the 

drawing for me, leaving wonderful compositions

like this, just waiting to be photographed.  

The sidewalks are formed of subtle shades of gray, 

with marks, textures and patterns set off by 

formed aluminum and black rubber accents.

The workmen had made an entire series of drawings

in the sidewalk, of which I was able to capture a few. 

I fairly danced the rest of the way to lunch; 

whoda thought concrete finishers were artistic geniuses?  

Concrete Images

I went out today looking for one thing, turtles, but they'd hidden somewhere in the creek bed. However, I did find children's chalk drawings on a sidewalk and a brand new hole in the ground that I just had to inspect. The drawings tell me there's a kid in the area with some talent while the hole revealed the textures left behind by the backhoe and the sand dumped in to cover the gas valve that had been replaced.


There were two people making art today: the kid with the chalk, and a man who scribed textures into  the cement with his backhoe.