I Can Give Him A Ship...

...but he'll have to find his own star to steer her by.*

The Boy doesn't know it yet, but for the weekend of his graduation from medical training I have arranged for a day sail on the historic Brig Niagara . Oliver Hazard Perry, during the War of 1812, at the age of twenty seven, took over command of the Brig Niagara and won the battle of Lake Erie on September 10, 1813. She is either a reconstruction of the original, or a replica, depending on your definition of either: Brig Niagara/Museum Ship/Wiki

Regardless, it should be one helluva Fourth of July for a certain young history buff. Participants are part of the crew and assist in hoisting sails and any other chores they are able. Day sails and longer two or three week trainings are available. I may sign him up for one of the longer trainings next summer, depending on his schedule, and if he likes what he sees on Saturday. This will give him a taste of the life as it was way back then.

Photo is courtesy of tallshipcelebration.com.

*Sea Fever

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a gray mist on the sea's face, and a gray dawn breaking.


I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.


I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way, where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

John Masefield

News From the Front

Got a letter yesterday - the first from the Boy, who is studying emergency medical care on the 100-year-old Army National Guard base. Old-fashioned mail the only way to communicate with him. No email or cell phones, or even calls on a public phone are permitted until the day we go to pick him up. No leave or liberty, either.

He tells me he has been made Assistant LPO (Lead Petty Officer), which is really good. And that the course and tests are challenging, the (for now) imaginary wounds gruesome and shocking. The students will meet with a real Navy doctor, ride with an EMS team and spend some time in an ER in a hospital.

Good. I'm satisfied.

Shall we sing along? The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B

Fear of Butterflies

What can I say? Sometimes it takes so little to strike fear into the hearts of men.

Acrylic paint, beach glass, glass beads, slag, silver and pearls on marble.

Deer Me!

I was recently pondering the demise of Detroit's industry and the renewal of wildlife within the city. I thought that since we have pheasants, peregrine falcons, raccoons, opossum,foxes, coyotes and now beaver, the only animals missing were whitetail deer and black bear. Oh yes, and wolves.

Last night I was walking the quieter back paths of Belle Isle, in the big meadow area where I like to go with my dog when he suddenly lunged into the thicket. Up from the tall grasses and dense shrubbery leapt a large, perfectly healthy and sleek whitetail deer - a doe. She bounded away directly in front of us and across our path to enter the wooded area near the Blue Heron Lagoon. The dog followed her trajectory in a perfect radius from the taut end of the leash like a pencil tip on a compass. It was all I could do to hold him and to keep my balance.

So astonished was I that I completely forgot the I had my camera with me, as always, but she was much too fast to capture in any case.

I wrote an email to the manager of the Belle Isle Nature Center to inquire about the deer and if they were aware of her presence on the island. This was his answer:

"Thank you, Erica, for bringing this to us. Yes, Whitetail deer sometimes swim down from the neighboring land mass or are let loose on the island. We have had reports and sightings of her throughout the winter. We will continue to monitor."

So there you have it. Wild Canadian deer in downtown Detroit. What's next? Excuse me while I whistle an old song from my childhood...

If you go down in the woods today
You’re sure of a big surprise.
If you go down in the woods today
You’d better go in disguise.

For every bear that ever there was
Will gather there for certain, because
Today’s the day the teddy bears have their picnic...

Hurry Up And Wait

The bags were packed the night before.The dog stood watch...

A couple of hours drive and we arrive at our destination: a 100-year-old army camp:

On either side of the straight road into the camp were POW barracks, which housed Italian and German prisoners during WWII:

Hours later, we were finally released to drive home, without the boy.

He's here to train in emergency medical care:

He's No Choir Boy

I went collecting again at Belle Isle and had a revelation of sorts. I found plenty of glass, from Coke bottles, wine bottles, and lots of bits and pieces from Hennessy bottles (a favorite beverage in Detroit.)

I found some wonderful pieces of slag (the by-product of smelting ore to purify metals) from our local steel mills just downriver. The steel mills have been there for around 100 years or more, so this slag could be very old. I thought it would make great hair.

I also found what appeared to be an old outlet plug, from the 1920's, about the same era my own home was built.

I say "appeared", because it was then that I noticed the tiny horns on one end of the outlet plug. I turned the plug around just in time to see a small devil attempting to hide within the plug! His horns and tail were clearly showing as he tried to squeeze himself further into the outlet.

Suddenly, it all made sense! I had seen a serpent that very morning, along the shore. It had slithered away from me when I stole its likeness with my camera.

The fact is that there are actually many tiny Edens, and many tiny moral struggles, all around us, and angels and demons may be found anywhere and everywhere, at any time of the day or night. Therefore, my task was as clear as the glass I had collected (which is actually kind of frosty and nicely weathered...) I must make a mosaic showing the Angel on one shoulder, and the Devil on the other, just as we remember them from our childhood fables.

I pieced together a makeshift angel from tile, glass and beads...

...and positioned him opposite the devil, who is so ashamed of himself he cannot even face us.

I placed both creatures on the shoulders of my Hennessy Man, who wears his addictions even on his necktie.

He can use all the help he can get to resist the temptations that are choking him, because, after all, he's no choir boy.


Acrylic paint, glass, slag, ceramic tile, beads and outlet plug on marble.

Not Baaaad At All!

Extreme Sheepherding Art

3 From the D

My first classical sculpture. Now it needs to dry out slowly, then be fired in the kiln.

The next session will be on just head and hands, life-sized, employing the same model. Should be fun.

“Sculpture is the best comment that a painter can make on painting.”
- Pablo Picasso

Couple

A couple of years ago, when we had our driveway removed, we discovered slabs of pure white marble underneath the concrete. What it was doing there was anyone's guess; it was almost the kind of thing you'd find in a cemetery. In any case, it is proving to be a useful find, as it provides a nice surface on which to do some mosaics. I have three pieces. This is one of them.

Broken bottle glass, beads, garnets and lapis lazuli, Chinese turquoise and acrylic paint on marble. Roughly 30 x 36 cm.

Make It So

Oh, dear. A very ugly corner of my alley.



This will not do at all.


Drag out the collected tiles and mosaic bits and pieces, mix up the thin set mortar and begin.

Add some patio tiles and pea gravel for a neat and tidy floor.

Yes, that's much better. It resembles a bright and cheerful crazy quilt.


Just what my alley needs.


It sets off the artwork that graces either side of my garage.

When We Were Very Young

She must have squinted hard into the bright morning sun, as the green balloon escaped from her tiny fist and rose quickly into the sky, along with all the other balloons. The air was bright with color, as she shielded her eyes with her other hand and waved to the balloon as it disappeared over the farms and railroad tracks.
..............................................................................................
Some days later, a woman, a kind of crazy artist who was collecting bits of colored glass and other junk from a Belle Isle beach happened to see the tightly bundled plastic sandwich bag among the flotsam.

She almost passed it by, as just another piece of trash, then stopped when she spotted the scribbles on the paper inside the baggie. She noted the bit of burst green rubber still clinging to the long colored ribbon and guessed that it all meant something. Reaching into the pocket of her hoodie, she fished out her camera and snapped a picture of the thing in place.

The woman didn't have a knife and the knot was very tight, so she tossed the bag into her collection of glass and other odds and ends and took it home.

And this is what she found...

The Devil's in the Details

Continuing my sudden, summer love affair with Belle Isle, I have collected an ample supply of broken beach glass from along the Belle Isle river front. Mostly from the Canadian side of the island, where one must interrupt one's collecting expedition pleasantly to wave to passing pleasure boats and freighters. I am using the bits of vari-colored glass to produce crude mosaics, combining the glass and glass beads, semi-precious stones (in this case, tiny garnets from a broken necklace) shells and tiles.

Some of these mosaics I intend to use to make a "call and response" intervention with the secret mosaics I found earlier (See: "Tile Be There", May 11, 2009.) Others I already have installed in my own garden.

Here is a small green devil done mostly in Coke bottle glass, on some sort of micaceous rock...

He is ready to tempt this tender woman, who is innocently enjoying herself in a swing beneath a flowering tree. Bad devil!

Have a nice weekend!