Thursday, June 2, 2011

to the lonely sea and the sky

The chemistry of color turned out beautiful and went awry, the millefiori textures of mint green, teal, and orange-red flaked off the clay into shards of intricate beauty. I saved them because I want to use that color scheme again for something.

We took a walk afterwards down by the water. I love the way it feels like a beach town, with the tattered carnival decor, the condos on the shore, the old doubles with pinwheels and petunias and chipped plaster saints in the flower beds. She used to work down there at an Irish pub with a stone patio, bocce ball courts, and
lovely metalwork all around.



She knows most of the neighbors and we stopped often, having conversations about hookers in the alleys, graffiti writers and art we've been loving, and hostas in our gardens, as the neighbor's radio played "Kashmir," the clematis coiled around trellises and along stone walls next to lush ferns and plants that look so otherworldly green and tropical one wonders how they grow in this land of rust and snow.

(these photos are stolen from a housing thread and look like they were taken in the fall and do not do this justice)






The red sun dropped further in the sky toward the waiting lake. If I could ever live down here in an old shotgun house with a scrap metal frame to grow grapes on I would, to be able to sit out on a porch and see the water, drink tea and scrawl in notebooks would be a dream come true.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

with two cats in the yard? that sounds like a doable dream, what's the mother church's stance on that alchemy that yer up to?

that girl said...

There's a machine shop down there between the condos and the factories with a lovely view of the lake, an incredible garden with grapes and irises, and countless cats.

The alchemy in this case involves no lead or philosopher's stones, but rather handbuilt earthenware coffee mugs covered in crystalline glazes of all colors. I'll throw some photos up of my work sometime.

Randal Graves said...

♫ I come from the land of rust & snow ♪

Ye alchymie is scurvie & if this some-time gentle man may be bold as the yeomanry, here's a crap shot of (one of) said über-cool mugs. Li'l Edgar approves.

Anonymous said...

coils, slabs, pinched?

that girl said...

coils smoothed out with love and care. There's wheels, I just haven't taken the time to learn to throw yet.