Holly Hills

Two weeks ago I caught a holiday cold and was on lock down in the house for a few days where I whined about being house bound and not outside. I worked every day since my monthly health insurance premium has jumped to a staggering 560.00 monthly. I whined about not having a day off for months and the cold to anyone who called.

I consoled myself with the realization that I am surrounded with elements of nature in my home:
Brick walls, wood window frames, joists, doors, floor boards and stairs, mortar, glass, and the original plaster walls with strands of horse hair.

Having a fever I marveled at this for hours while staring at a corner of the carpet then headed out for a delirious drive (I had to get out) and landed in front of this home in Holly Hills on Leona. CRAZY! The bird bath, barrel tiles and brick had me squealing.



Triple arch alert!

Check out the beefy terra cotta and the course of bricks at the base of the building:

Merry Christmas to me

Once a year my former sweetie Chris visits from Seattle and always brings flowers and computer assistance.


It's the router.

X

One of my abundant peeves is the use of X in artwork because it voids content.

I've been around awhile and have eXperinced X used by countless generations of amateur painters. It's easy to smear or slap an X on a canvas and the result is a bold non-statement.

Antoni Tapies was probably in an empty mood when he painted these:

The above is an acknowledgment of brick.
I told you painters studied brick and rectangles are critical to painting.

Don't just say no say something.
Oh yeah, Merry Xmas.

Sunset at Bellerive Park

Bad Tim

Tim on the front porch where he works:

Top photo picks of 2009

The past few years I've posted my top brick photos during December.
This year I'm posting some of my all time favorite photos.

Abandoned wasp nest pretending to be an incoming meteorite:


Tracks in TGS:

Paw print in brick:

Mortar joint:

Marti Frumhoff: St. Louis Activist and brick hugger. RIP.

View from the roof of 3410 Oak Hill:

Gothic arch:

Visiting artist Lesley Caldera:

Jen's gangway garden and window detail:


Holy Family School and bricks:


MGF:

Diamond Brick:

Fluer-de-lis:



Blue bricks:




Here kitty, kitty

Art Deco building Kingshighway Hills:



Blue coral

Beau photos:


Paw and foot

Beau in the snow:

Sculpture in Marti Frumhoff Memorial Garden

This sculpture anonymously appeared in Marti's Garden in the late fall. It's a piece of driftwood, was perfectly placed in a dark circle of mulch and anchored with a white rock. I'm impressed with its placement and the use of organic materiel.

A few weeks later another piece of wood appeared next to it.
It's quite suspenseful and I'm curious how it will evolve.

The Marti Frumhoff Memorial Garden is located on Morgan Ford Road and Utah.
The site was donated by St. Louis City.
I maintained this garden with lots of help from friends,neighbors, and a gorilla artist.


I took these photos last month. The garden was looking gorgeous and a group of volunteers from TGS helped plant hundreds of bulbs n late September for spring blossoms.

There's two benches in Marti's garden, one was anonymously donated by a local business and the garden fund paid for the other.
I researched benches online for a week in spring 2007. One day while in McDonald Park I spied a similar bench and called Dan Skillman, St. Louis City Parks Commissioner who shared the source for these benches. Dan Skillman has been a wonderful resource for the garden and his Dept. maintains the irrigation system.

Next spring the front of the garden facing MGF will be replanted with liriope.

Art and Brick Part 2

A word?
Jackson Pollack was notorious for public urination and infamous for his legendary emission into Peggy Guggenheim's fireplace.
He liked to whip it out and heavy drinking provided justification.

Pollack spent many hours with a hand against brick walls peeing. I submit at one point he looked straight ahead at a brick and glanced into his future.
Pollack painting:

Detail of iron ore in brick:

I'm not dissing Pollack, he's one of my favorite painters.
My point is I believe Abstract Expressionist painters studied spent some time observing face brick.

That reminds me, many years ago I an article in a national Arts publication about Franz Kline. The writer had toured Kline's studio after his death and wrote about a telephone book that had pages and pages of small paintings where Kline supposedly practiced his gesture strokes.

Any painter will tell you he was cleaning his brushes.
Give me a break.
Kline's bold gesture strokes needed scale and an extensive range of movement. He painted with his arms and not his fingers.

I imagined telling this to Armin and hearing his laughter.

Armin

I was informed via email last week that my erstwhile companion Armin died in 2002.

Armin was amazing and exceptionally talented.
He was one of the best adventures in my life and my heart is on his absence.