SIDEWALK COSMOS

Wednesday, September 12, 2012.  There is so much to see in this tight little space.  I was initially drawn back to this small patch of green moss in a sidewalk depression, with its tiny stones nestled in a crease.  Then I saw the rusted patch of cement, the remnants of a street sign that once stood here and bled its metallic life out and away after repeated rains.  I am still - and again - drawn to the green moss, pushing life into the unlikeliest of places.

PYRAMID

Sunday, March 11.  What an exquisite little contraption.  Teeth, teeth, teeth, suspended by crossed wires, floating in space and traveling through time.  All along, it was, left on the sidewalk, chained, as if to let it free it could wreck some havoc in the universe.  Maybe it is the answer to some cosmic question, yet to be asked. 

LOST TREES

December 30, 2010. Abandoned, stacked, left alone. These trees, destined to decorate someones home, are homeless, bound with colored rope - green, blue and red. The red rope looks so soft and unnecessary given that the tree is wrapped in a mesh. Or is it just for adornment, gilding the lily as it were.

LION AND SNAKE

November 17, 2010. Crossing the temporary bridge that has been there for a long time you can walk right past these stunning reliefs on the AT&T building in lower Manhattan. Prior the bridge being there, you had to crane your neck upward to see them. Now, at least for another few years, you can see them at eye level, in all their intricate glory. Stop, look, enjoy.

Gates to Heaven

August 28, 2009. Behind these blue gates once stood a rectory to St. Peter’s Church, the oldest Roman Catholic parish in NYC and NY State. Now there stands this giant luxury apartment building. During construction, this gate was erected, and I watched from my office window as a construction worker carefully constructed and affixed the cross at the top. It remained unadorned, in stark contrast to the bright blue, and the faded prints of the Jesus and the mother Mary on either side of the locked entrance. It isn’t the Gates of Paradise, but someone thought about how to construct it, to give it some dignity relative to its meaning to the church building. To whom does the Danger sign speak? The weak of heart, the pious, the converted, or the believers?

Dutch Street School

August 25. Dutch Street is a dark forgotten alley in lower Manhattan, and home to a place called the Downtown Little School. At the entrance to the school, someone painted these barriers a multitude of colors to brighten the entrance and perhaps engage the children coming to the school, or maybe some unknown passerby. It is there, on the way to my dentist, that I found it.