TURKEY BEND

August 14, 2020

Last week I joined Claire and her stalwart canine companion on a stroll through the East End to a part of Buffalo Bayou known as Turkey Bend. It’s part of the Buffalo Bayou East Master Plan, though at present the unimproved state of this industrial site holds its infinite appeal.

Exploring the site transported me back to living in Pittsburgh at the turn of this century, a place where the urban and the industrial rolled into an overgrown rural feeling in a way that I hadn’t experienced before. As usual for Houston, the clouds stole the show, though I’ve tried to capture some of the structures, vegetation, and graffiti that offered playful visual interaction—and will surely not remain so gloriously forlorn for long.

One part of the evening left unrecorded was a small, lone turtle that kept swimming by us as we sat talking on the edge of the cloudy water. The other was the joy in just catching up with a friend. Once again, it’s the simple pleasures that stand out as powerful little miracles in 2020.

MUSHROOM WEEK

August 2, 2020

Imagine my surprise during a dry, hot summer week to find these fuzzy mushrooms pop up on the front lawn, defying anything I know about the cool, moist environment preferred by such organisms. Because I couldn’t identify what was sprouting, I made up a story that these creatures were the missing link between the fungi kingdom and my recent felt artworks, imagining that they surfaced below my window to inspire further progress with the collection of organic forms growing in my living room studio.

It was fun to monitor them over the ensuing days as they lost their fibrous surface and became more delicate. As weather shifted to a wetter pattern they began to look more like mushrooms instead of the anomalous creatures of the week before.

It was right around then that I started noticing fruits everywhere, from little brown mushrooms (LBMs) at the craft garden, no doubt enjoying new irrigation lines, to various boletes spotted on evening neighborhood walks. I was already a person who delighted in small discoveries such as these and Covid summer has only heightened my appreciation for the spontaneous growth happening all of the time, all around, that I may not have been as present to notice before.

BLUE WEBS

May 18, 2020

Seriously underwhelming image quality, but these illuminated creations were a highlight of a recent evening power walk to the Buffalo Bayou trails near the Dunlavy.

The ability to draw delight from the smallest of discoveries has served me well these past months, whether out on a pedestrian fungi patrol, enjoying periodic evening serenades from the Gulf Coast Amphibian Chorus, or stumbling upon the sweetest mini succulent planter in the Museum District one evening.

I’d venture that the jasmine has been sweeter for longer this spring and that there are way more anoles darting across the sidewalk, but it’s just as likely that I’m simply paying way more attention as the world has quieted and slowed down.

BLUE BAYOU INSTALL

May 15, 2020

Shortly after our stay at home order expired I was notified that a large commission I’d finished in March would be ready for install. I’d anticipated feeling strange to be working in proximity to other people after some six weeks of relative isolation, but the thrill of getting to see a substantial project to completion was by far the tone for the entire afternoon.

A couple of days later, I got a troubling call, informing me that there’d been ample feedback since install that the bayou looked too much like a sperm. The irony, of course, is that I'd been thinking the design had a fertility motif since the beginning but figured if they were happy with that messaging then so was I. To abridge an epic tale, I was assisted in getting the offending portion of the bayou back home and was able to transform the ‘head’ into another whiplash curl.

Everyone was pleased with the outcome—and true to form, I’m looking forward to seeing what I can make from the areas I cut out…

I have a few additional pieces in this lobby as well, after all, what’s a moon and a bayou without a few Guide Stars?

Midas Touch

January 29, 2018

I relish passing this dingy, unoccupied storefront, finding joy in the adjacent brickwork, the indecipherable font chosen for the sign, and of course, the fact that someone named their business after a mythic curse.

Of course, the sky here isn’t bad, either. I frequently muse that though Houston lacks any kind of topographical excitement, the big sky cloud scene more than makes up for it.