Sidewalk Face at Eagle-Crow-Owl

Knife in the Tree

June 23, 2019June 23, 2019by Sidewalk Face at Eagle-Crow-Owl1 Comment

Across the street from me is a steak knife stuck in a tree. While not super menacing, it’s definitely noteworthy. Who put it there? And why has no one removed it? I’ve passed it by 100 times, first noticing it early in the year.

Right away I wondered how I could make it into a face. The only thing that came to mind was to hang something off of it but I didn’t see anything around that fit the bill. Maybe a few weeks later I came upon some rusted wire in a distinctly head like shape. Perfect. I would just need to fashion some facial features. I put it in a ceramic plant pot that sits under a chair outside our door and promptly did nothing for months.

I would see the knife and think, oh, I need to make that face. But the task wasn’t as streamlined as my usual process. Almost always, I just get to it and use what is nearby as fast as I can put it together. Part of the joy is getting it done. Very Nike-esque Just Do It activity! Making this face was going to be a rule breaker. I would have to make it at home and bring it back to the location. I don’t have a problem with that per se but it was enough outside the scope of what usually happens to create a situation of paralysis. My dog walks are my studio time. When I am back inside, I resume the life of a documentary editor, or a mother or whatever.

Fast forward to late spring and our building was getting a new coat of paint including the inner stairwell and foyer so the ceramic pot ended up in our living room for a few days and I was like, oh yeah, I remember that rusted wire. And since I had no choice but to see it, I finally got around to making the face.

The knife is in a tree that sits between the narrow passage of two buildings, there is a lot going on visually. I settled on letting the gray building be the backdrop and it just so happens that behind the face are some wires running down and along the wall. I played with different compositions but it seemed necessary to incorporate them into the face. This is the best I could do, lining my little sideways mouth up with the horizontal wire. At the time I felt I would study my efforts and re-jigger. Maybe take the mouth off or re-fashion it.

But of course time does not stand still while we hesitate, tinker and procrastinate. The next day the knife was gone.

I am not satisfied with the Sidewalk Face above. There was one image I took that felt better, a more expressive face, but I would have needed to remove the wire mouth so I photoshopped it out.

All this is to say yet once again, Art Made is Better Than Art Unmade. I have learned over and over that there is a limited amount of time to act. The more the impulse and the act can go together, the better.

While I wish I had had a second chance I do really like the wire face and now it’s hanging on my wall reminding me to doodle but not to dawdle.

Art, Sidewalk Faces

The Crap to Beauty Ratio – Why Los Angeles is the Best for Making Sidewalk Faces

June 26, 2017June 26, 2017by Sidewalk Face at Eagle-Crow-Owl1 Comment

Since writing a recent blog post about making Faces in Other Places, I have been reflecting on how perfect my neighborhood is for this particular activity. Before this analysis I had sort of been patting myself on the back thinking I can do this anywhere. But I must now acknowledge I am blessed to live in a locale that consistently provides the perfect ratio of man made detritus to organic detritus.

It’s very hard to create these faces without trash. How can I make an orange smoke a cigarette if I can’t find a cigarette butt? It’s also hard to make trash attractive. But combine a little crap with a little flora and bingo bango you just might have a new friend. The weather here doesn’t dip below 60 degrees, it never snows and rarely rains. The neighborhood is teeming with a diversity of plant life most of it flowering all year long. Come on! Why isn’t everyone turning roses into faces? To put another cherry on top of this environmental sundae of possibility, I live in a neighborhood full of Spanish style fourplexes from the 1930s. Why is that helpful? Because everyone is renting and no one likely to be around owns or cares about the stuff in their yard. How nice to have orange trees dropping their rotting fruit in apartment complex driveways so I can jam cigarette butts in them without feeling like I am stealing produce. And that red stuff on the end of the cigarette that hopefully makes it look lit up is the droppings of a bottle brush tree. There is so much stuff to choose from. It’s like shopping at a Walmart Supercenter that has a special junkyard section as well as a Botanical Garden in the back. I am free to pluck leaves and seeds and petals without feeling like the petty fauna thief that that I am. Would I have done this to a rose in some well tended rose garden? No! Not only embarrassing but also wrong. This rose was the single flower growing amongst weeds in front of our local post office.

The final thing that works really well here is the anonimity. Of course there are people around, I’m hardly the only dog walker in the hood. But people in Los Angeles DO NOT CARE. If I was wearing a purple flashing spiderman costume (what? why?!) nobody would pay attention. They would assume, if they even bothered assuming, that I was on my way to Grauman’s Chinese Theater to pose with tourists. I like this because when I am arranging trash in the dirt I don’t want to converse with anyone. I don’t want to explain myself and most importantly I don’t want to stop. I want to get the photo.

So all in all I am pretty darn lucky to live here. Praise Be.

—

Wormhole to previous blog post: Faces in Other Places

Art, Sidewalk Faces

One Squat Shot – Construction Site

June 9, 2017June 13, 2017by Sidewalk Face at Eagle-Crow-Owl6 Comments

In a recent post I introduced the idea of a one squat shot. All items that make up the face are gathered within arms reach of a squatting position. Not that common for me. It feels like a real win when it happens.

Here is what I came upon. An oval stain that is definitely shouting Face Shape! A plastic container of mostly eaten hot sauce already in the eye position. And if that weren’t lure enough, look at the pink string dying to toupee it’s way over and serve the role of hair. If I were a trout, this would be a parachute adams*. Reel me in.