Inside
Artist studios are usually and necessarily spartan and chaotic — at the same time. White walls, grey floors and plenty of storage. Tools organized and disorganized. Smells and stinks. Tables on wheels, work benches and places to splatter stuff. Light, sometimes natural and sometimes not, but bright, that the nuances of mixed colors may be felt.
Splatter and light
Holy places, as it were, are often the opposite of spartan and chaotic. Ornament adorns, often accompanied by iconography that assigns parabolic meaning to single letters in th alphabet. Where, in English, a three-letter word like “cat” refers to a single four-legged animal, dogma can assign the word “cat” with a meaning so complex that armies will be launched in its defense.
Usually, the complexity of meaning refers to either darkness or light, in the most absolute sense of each word.
This studio, temple, church or synagogue
Just north of University City, in Philadelphia, the building in the photo sits on a three acre plot. And, while University City — home to the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University — most assuredly sits in West Philadelphia, this brilliant building does not sit in University City.
I drove by while taking a shortcut, trying to avoid traffic. Thinking that I knew where much of the best public art could be found within William Penn’s blighted experiment, I was blown away. Captured.
Having a bag of baby carrots and a bottle of lemonade with me, after taking the photograph, I leaned against the painted brick, underneath the screaming mask, just to the right of the garage door, and gave thanks.
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