Glistening Mortar

Rats.
My camera couldn't capture the flecks of mica in this dyed black mortar which caused the wall to glisten as I strolled by. I turned my head to affectionately acknowledge the shimmering little flecks of light then stopped to gawk and relax into a trance.

Inevitably, someone stops to stare at me with my head a foot away from a brick wall. This happens more than I care to dsclose and usually an interview convenes in which I reluctantly participate.

I've developed a new response to the question about the tattoo on my forearm: Everyone in my coven has this tattoo. I know! It's rude but I can't spare the time to discuss the golden ratio.

This mortar is baited with sparkly bits:

Working the Angle

Along Morgan Ford Rd in Bevo there's three blocks of apartments built on angles but only on the East side of the street. If you live in one of this buildings you would open the front door and your shoulder would be facing the street. Thinking about living in a building on an angle makes me dizzy. It's oddly disruptive and mildly annoying because everything, and I mean everything, is about the rectangle. Even the shape of a brick.

Painters must know this: a square painting is a hard sell because we humans are self referential. We intuitively prefer a rectangular building and inside that building most of our furniture resonates with the shape of our bodies. No one has a square mirror in a square bathroom, it's too challenging of a read. When I open the rectangular door to my pantry I see a series of rectangle boxes.

I once owned a painting that was a circle but it was created by an Inuit Indian and Natives insist on circles. It troubled me and I eventually sold it on ebay.

This is my theory and I'm sticking to it.

Morgan Ford Rd at Neosho:






Nothing like a home depot door to queer up some historic terra cotta.

Adventures of a Brick Nerd on a Saturday night

Click on the subject line for some in-depth reading.

Feast your eyes on this water struck brick:

Grill work

Speaking of grill work, I'm getting a tooth implant to go with the rest of the hardware that's been installed in my body during the last few years. I'm trying to persuade my dentist to have the Lab create a fiber optic tooth for me. Gold grills are so dated.

Cherokee street:

Forest Park and Vandeventer:

Cherokee street:

Kingshighway Hills:

True Grit Brick

Sand was used to line the mold of these bricks and they are sublime. The color in each brick includes sepia, russet, spinach and crimson.
Click on the photos to enlarge.



Original mortar that looks as if it were pushed into place (by finger) to accommodate the little cervices in each brick. I find this immensely endearing.

My tea house

Sometimes I refer to it as The Veranda when I'm feeling southern goth.
I designed the tea house and had it built 5 years ago and stained the whole contraption the color of brick.

Every late Spring I invite choice neighbors over for an evening soiree. This year the deck boards are being freshly stained. This means cleaning the deck (14 x 6 feet) to a pristine surface before applying the stain.

Painted brick

I came across this tragedy while driving through Richmond Heights a few weeks ago. I actually had to make a U turn to gawk. It's a bright purple. Seriously, bright purple.

Tom Krepcio

Tom Krepcio lives in TGS and has his studio here. His medium is glass and his scholarship is extraordinary.
Click on the subject line to jettison to this blog.

Getting even

I'm betting those glass cube windows were once long vertical glass panes.

Glazed Green bullnose bricks

Located on The Hill:

Triple Arches - Mediterranean Revival

Going, going...
38 Olive

Any chance of what the city makes off those parking meters covers the cost of mowing those Lots?





I used a flash trying to illuminate the interior white glazed bricks.

The white glazed brick looks like it was covered with moss but its the remnants of pulled ivy. On the right side there's a rough brick course where a building was demoed.
Read about it here: http://vanishingstl.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html.

The east wall is a solid brick:

Across the lot, back view of a carriage house:

The Arts and Crafts Dream House

This house is located in Richmond Heights. I drove by thirteen years ago while trying to find a short cut to work. When I saw it I exhibited all the usual signs of awe: jaw dropping, eyes widening, along with a squeal of delight immediately followed by the sorrow of knowing I could only look and not touch for This is the House of My Dreams (except for the zoysia grass).

I was very late to work that day.

The porch is L shaped with two staircases. Check those chubby columns: exquisite!
I know some guy I dumped years ago reads this blog.
I will make it up to you via weekly phone call visitations if give me this house.



Matching garage

That 'hole' is actually a porch drain

Nifty pergola

One of the unique, cohesive (and now lost) architectural features in our cities were the gold and black numbers above the doors and many still remain. What interesting industry.

When I was a child we visited the family doctor in the Arcade Building downtown. All of the office doors had the same gold lettering and numbers. When office tenants changed, we'd see workers removing the lettering with a blade.

The gold numerals start to disappear west of Kingshighway in the South part of the city.

A means first floor:



Oops: home depot doors with tiny windows and no transoms.

3964 McDonald Ave

This is a reprint of my first blog post.
Shortly after taking this photo the house sold to a hooiser (or red neck if you're not native to St. Louis) contractor who removed the beveled glass because it 'looks old'.
It was a very bad day for me.
I took a brief tour of the house when he was remodeling. He removed the original quarter saw oak door and replace it with a door from home depot. Can you freaking believe that? He also ripped out the entire basement saying it was outdated. My dad and mom had built three rooms in the basement (loads of kids in that one bedroom bungalow) with plenty of storage space: built in closets, a book case and two drop down desk tops. Two toy chest were built into one wall with cushions on the top. The other side of the basement was the laundry, the scary furnace and a wall of closets with my parents clothing. It was there I found the suit my mother wore when she married in 1948 and my first introduction to vintage clothing.

Monday, July 10, 2006
3964 McDonald Ave
This is where it all began, 3964 McDonald Ave in the Tower Grove South area of St. Louis. My childhood home! I now live less than a mile from the one bedroom Craftsman bungalow.

I love the brass mailbox and beveled glass address plate. I used to polish it when I was a kid. It expands into a box inside the wall with an interior flap door. I would run my fingers over the surrounding brick, fascinated with the crevices and various values of color. Original black mortar.
I loves me some brick.

St. Louis Brick Confidential

Photographed at dusk these distinctive bricks exhibit a warm rust color that's framed with a subtle pink mortar. Used on the large scale of a building they serve to soften areas of brickwork and resonate with the landscape. The random addition of iron ore fines serve to rivet focus and create a volatile and active surface.

Contemporary brick can only aspire to mimic the exquisite and uniform construction of these bricks manufactured circa 1900 (if not earlier).

This summer I will begin working on a series of paintings:
St. Louis Brick Confidential.

OK, I admit the above was a mocking nod to Clement Greenberg and his fey gushing over Pollack's work. I still submit that Pollack leaned against a brick building (probably while taking one of his infamous public whizzes) took a close look at the bricks, and thought: HOT DAMN (I know I have).

Flatiron Building

Located on Potomac and Arkansas.
I intend to collect them all.

STL School Closings Demonstration - Thursday

Received a call from Rebecca Rogers, who was at the Mann meeting on Monday with the following info: a demonstration has been organized against the school closings, tomorrow, Thursday, @ Gateway Classic building, where the SAB will be announcing the SLPS closings.

Gateway is located on Jefferson. Be there @ 5:25 pm. Signs are provided.