pretty my city

Make your city pretty by placing something unexpected and beautiful in the public view.

[prettymycity]

Saint Downy Woodpecker and Saint Nuthatch.

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[prettymycity]

A tryptic of saints. The chickadees are for my friend Albert, an avid birder who has flown the final migration.

[prettymycity]

Why my output has declined. Trying to focus on quality, not quantity. Bigger projects on the drawing board.

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Down on the Hank Aaron Trail... I saw in the Shepherd that there is a walk along the Hank Aaron Trail today to view the public art, so I thought I’d add a piece to the work on display. I hope this version of my Great Grandfather’s dove doodle will ride for a long time, like the one in Bay View. The paintings mounted on the fence commemorate the fair housing marches of the late 1960′s. I was a baby back then, and my parents had a hard time finding housing on the East Side because people didn’t want to rent to families with young children. They were asked to leave the apartment in which they lived because they displayed the sign of a political candidate in their street-facing window. My parents and my mother’s family were active in James Groppi’s movement. I rode above the marchers on my father’s shoulders. I remember passing by an abandoned building bearing the sign of the Youth Commandos when I rode the #60 Burleigh bus to Jackie Robinson Middle School in the early years of school desegregation. Now I shop at Groppi’s in Bay View. The Milwaukee River rolls by the trail and under the 16th Street Viaduct, our own Edmund Pettus Bridge. Many many rivers yet to cross. Hank Aaron Trail Walk http://npaper-wehaa.com/shepherdexpress#2015/08/13/?article=2578793 The Itals - Roll River Jordan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHVxlL_jQa0

[prettymycity]

For those on the Hero's journey...

I set up this little scene at the fountain in North Point Park and put some luminaries on the Oak Leaf Trail, in hopes that they would be found by the Brew City Safari group on today’s sunrise-over-the-lake hike.

The story of the Frog Prince opens "The Call to Adventure," the first chapter in Joseph Campbell's book, The Hero With a Thousand Faces. If you don't have time to read it, then watch the Bill Moyers film interview, The Power of Myth, from PBS.

The Call to Adventure https://books.google.com/books?id=I1uFuXlvFgMC&lpg=PP1&dq=the%20hero%20with%20a%20thousand%20faces&pg=PA41#v=onepage&q&f=false The Power of Myth http://billmoyers.com/spotlight/download-joseph-campbell-and-the-power-of-myth-audio/

The frog is adapted from Akiko Naomura's woodcut illustrations in Charmaine Aserappa's book, Japanese Garden. (1999) Council Oak Books.

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When you love someone.

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Paraphrased from “The Pond in Winter,” by Thoreau. The “H” is by William Morris. http://genius.com/Henry-david-thoreau-the-pond-in-winter-annotated/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Morris

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When was the last time you saw a real one?

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The Jefferson Airplane lyric notwithstanding, the Dormouse never actually said “feed your head” in Alice in Wonderland. He does tell a long winded tale that gets him stuffed into a teapot, though. At Alice’s trial, when asked what the Dormouse said, the Mad Hatter says that he can’t remember. Maybe what makes something true isn’t in the remembering of it.

[prettymycity]

Sleep is the brother of death. -- Mohammed

Here we are, all of us: in a dream-caravan, A caravan, but a dream – a dream, but a caravan. And we know which are the dreams. Therein lies the hope.  -- Bahauddin Naqshband This piece may not end up outside...we’ll see. The quote in the painting is from Wendell Berry’s novel, Remembering, which I’ve used in other pieces. When I first read it I was reminded of the Sufi teaching stories of the Mulla Nasrudin from my childhood. You can read some of them here, from Idries Shah Sayyid’s Caravan of Dreams.

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For my friend Patrick on his birthday.

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Interesting anamorphic works from Bernard Pras. http://www.ufunk.net/en/artistes/bernard-pras/

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Unless...

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TBT...Remember how they did Radio Raheem? Sadly, we seem to have  taken far too many backward steps since this film came out in 1989...the number, another summer — GET DOWN! Iron sharpens iron... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yixhqzWmeRM&index=1&list=RDyixhqzWmeRM

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One for the kids...

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Looking for signs... This one from Bergman's The Seventh Seal takes my mind in so many directions. My father was a pretty good chess player, and while he didn't win that match with Death his style of play was, as my brother put it, to go for the glorious win at any cost.

Bergman died seven years ago in the seventh month, which was also the month of his birth. This clash of sevens calls upon another piece of apocalyptic prophesy put to song by Culture (listen at 8:47). Looking at events in the world today some many wonder about the silence of god, as in the moments before the final judgement after the breaking of the seventh seal, or in response to the plight of the faithful. Silence is not inaction, it is preparation. This was the lesson I learned from Quaker worship, introduced to me by my father when I was in high school. Silence is where you go to find the center of all things. A recent study found that people would rather give themselves electric shocks than sit quietly all alone in a room. You are never alone.