Candoro Reborn

Last year I showed you some of the ruins of the Candoro Marble Works factory. They're still pretty much in ruins. But the office building has been lovingly restored and now hosts many art and music events.

Bait and Switch

I don't know who painted this mural or when it was painted. As you see, I am not the fountain of information today. I just find this mural so poignant when I step back and view it in its full context:

This is the old swimming pool for the patients at Lakeshore Mental Health Institute. I don't know if they still use it - it looks pretty run down. And maybe that's where my pathos radar kicks in. The fantasy is a white sand beach with sunbathing babes and surfer dudes. The reality is a rectangle of chlorinated water behind barred gates.

Fire In the Hole

I've finally downloaded all the photos that have been sitting comfortably in my camera for the past couple of months (!), so I have a bit of catching up to do. Think of it as a year's end retrospective. These are shots from November, when some friends and I helped local potter Peter Rose with his semi-annual kiln firing. Basically, I shoved wood into the kiln at timed intervals for six hours. Except when I was taking photos. Ahem. You can see some of the future pots in the inferno here:

This was the first time I've had anything to do with pottery apart from buying the finished product. And no, I didn't have any pots in there. We had a very big breakfast at Cracker Barrel when our shift was over. I think I smelled as wood-smoky as the bacon.

Neighbors

This space on the 100 block of Gay Street often hosts temporary art shows. This looked like someone forgot to take part of their exhibit. Or maybe one of the neighbors has turned into bronze.