VivTown, Population: 1

–noun

I got all shivery when I saw this first image of Mercury taken from its own orbit. Photographs taken in outer space just put it all in perspective for me.

Here’s an ancient depiction of the god Mercury from a bakery in Pompeii. This puts it all in another kind of perspective. Look at that, um, loaf!

Do you have the patience to wait

until the mud settles and the water is clear?

Can you remain unmoving

until the right action arises by itself?

(Lao Tzu)

Flourescent Orange Vs! Found on Holland Ave., Somerville, MA

I couldn’t resist bringing these Vs home and arranging them on a piece of black construction paper. I guess it really doesn’t take much to amuse me…

This is a photo of the actual bronze lion’s head I mentioned here. In order to take this photograph I had to wrap my camera in a towel and carry it up over my head while I climbed into the pool and then walked into the middle to get my shot.

Here are 2 more photos I took while I was there:

Tongue Depressor Man in his City of Circles

I made this before drinking my first cup of coffee, which sits steaming before me now (Yum!). I’ll add more to this with charcoal, graphite, and silver pen. It’s a small piece — only 6″ x 6″. I like to work small. It feels like the visual art equivalent of a poem. A world I can tuck between the pages of a book.

I am fond of basic shapes – circles, rectangles – so this caught my eye. The irregular shape at the top reminds me of a spoon handle or “Tongue Depressor Man” — as I see the silhouette of a long-necked bald man atop a tongue depressor; he has a big pointy nose. I found this on A Street near Fort Point Channel among the trash and detritus deposited on the sidewalk by a melting snowbank. Tomorrow morning, if I am up early enough, I hope to use this in a printmaking project.

Hubcap Cover, Plastic Red Star / found on Summer Street Bridge / 2.22.2011

Luck favors the prepared mind.