First, an oversight from my previous entry.
Portland, Oregon, painter
Stephen O’Donnell is a very cool guy! Not only are his paintings beautifully
executed, they spur a psychologically charged discussion that many people are afraid to
broach: How do we identify ourselves? What do gender labels really mean? Do all women have male tendencies? As a male, is it o.k. to
admit to certain feminine proclivities without being homosexual? What exactly is transsexual
anyway?
(Did I warn you? You might
want to dial up Stephen’s paintings again. They are all self-portraits.)
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For years, I have urged
artists everywhere to leave their studios and look around at the world outside.
I know you are busy…I don’t want you to waste your talent or energy. But you
are a citizen and what happens in our cities (and Country) have huge impact on
you as much as me and YOU HAVE SOME SPECIAL TALENTS THAT THE REST OF US NEED.
If there is remaining doubt
about the cross-over of urban design, spend some time reading through the
discussion of how a high rise multi-million dollar luxury condo is bringing the
shadows of despair and death to a neighboring museum garden. Additionally, the reflected light from the tower has
rendered a museum light installation unusable! Who would have guessed?
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Our home building project is
still stuck in government and engineering limbo-land. It’s just too boring to describe all the
manholes we’ve fallen through. The site
is difficult for many reasons but let me warn everybody about one: infill building!
You friends in Portland,
Oregon, know all about infill building – channeling new construction into a
crescent around metropolitan centers that already have the infrastructure, the
rail lines, schools, etc. intact to support population growth and maintain
virgin lands on the outskirts. It’s a
wonderful practice – hard to put into place politically, equally difficult
practically.
Our 2.4 acres parcel is only
three miles from the center of Rochester, New York. It has all the attributes
attached to infill building plus it backs up to woods and trails that die into
a large county park. It also comes with a full retinue of neighbors who really
like their undeveloped private dumping ground!
These people will be my
neighbors one day. I can only hope the scars of battle will heal over before
then.
Meanwhile, here is a picture
of the building site and another of one
of my daughters, helping that day to clean out the barn.
