As a child in the 1950s my family visited Mackinac Island, there was no bridge then , you tooth ferry from the mainland to the island, We drove up there, camped out, woke up at 3AM to get in an automobile line to get on the ferry. Sometime this line of cars on the road could be very long, no cars were allowed on the island but I cannot remember where cars were parked or why they would even on be the ferry. Maybe there was a parking lot where people left their cars and then got on the ferry.
People would start lining their cars up about 3AM, often with thermoses of coffee and maybe something to eat, there might even be people with the ability to cook—there were not enough motels for the tourist season, it was not an urban area and there were campgrounds—tourist time would be summer, and in the hours between sun rise and opening of the ferry service, people would put their car in line, turn off the ignition, get out of the car with coffee, maybe a donut or something home cooked and stand around and talk to each other. As the ferry opening time approached while talking with others they would be increasingly sneaking glances watching for some tell tale movement in the line—having conversations where the story you tell cannot be too long as it might not be finished.
But this image was in Cambridge, MA, 1971
Someone made pottery with their hands and fired it, some one attached it to the wall, straight, somewhere SOMA in San Francisco
Memorial Day Parade, 1970, Marshall MN. When I was young there would a parade, usually local groups involved in community affairs and/or representing some local interest would have a contingent walking in the parade. At the end would be kids with their bikes decorated with colored crepe paper.
Cambridge Wall circa 1972, probably somewhere between Harvard and Central Squares
James 1970, Haymarket, one afternoon
James before or after beard,
James 2015
James in San Francisco, 2015
Myles, 1973, photograph by James. I have had this image for many years . . . to me it feels like the 1960, or maybe what they could have been or graciously were not. it usually hangs on a wall somewhere in my house, though not now—when we installed a new floo, everything got packed into boxes and moved to the garage, stuff had been accumulating for 20+ years and it is coming back in slowly, sparingly and cautiously.
Brooklyn, photograph by James. He walked around, met people and made a photograph.
Last week on national news there was a crime event reported which occurred in Strong, or Farmington ME and also mentioned Franklin County, I forgot, nor could I find it on one google search, but its the same time of the year as this image, County Fair, circa 1970.
The busy street, late afternoon shadows from tall buildings, and people strangers to each other but sharing a reason to be in the same area at the same time—here no one is attacking or abusing an other person.
They were discussing money outside her place of employment, or maybe she owned it, there was not enough time to assess the situation and while it probably was none of my business they were speaking loud enough to make it my business . . .
The new Sales Force building attracts people, three young women and a baby but if you are walking around, and listen, you ar just as likely to hear three women walking and talking about business strategies . . .
One afternoon, the end of my day walk , somewhere down on Market street near a BART station entrance this man was texting himself, or thats what he told me, I did not look at the screens . . . the arrows point up, the sign says “from above” but he is not seeking something from above.
“A potter should start with an intuitive concept—he/she thinks of a combination of shape, pattern, and color which will answer a given need futility and beauty at one and the same time.”
Beyond East & West Bernard Leach
Maybe it applies to whatever you do, including making mannequins for store window displays. Personally I prefer A Potter’s Handbook to his memoirs.
Mom lived in a memory care facility for a few years, after lunch we would sometimes retire to her room, sit and talk . . . the wall hanging is from South Africa, the design uses simple contrasts to express the visual experience— 7 sheep, three trees, four houses with one house bigger and lighter contrast to 3 smaller, but the same shape and color, and the mountains contrast pointy and round.