Hello peeps

I came across these poems at the bottom again and thought I'd tell you guys the background story of this image that I created a couple of years ago. It was pretty much an act of whimsy.

As soon as a heard that Instagram was doing a sticker day, the sticker-festooned Stop sign at my neighborhood grocery store popped into my head. If any of you live in the East Bay you know how great the epic grocery store Berkeley Bowl is, and will recognize this sign next to the entrance to their garage. I already had it on my phone, but I wanted to get a high-resolution image for my art piece. I thought it would be funny and somehow poignant or poetic to place it in the loading dock of an abandoned warehouse, also near my house in Emeryville.

 
Unfortunately, the loading dock is no more. It was a building that was abandoned for years, and it became an unofficial homeless shelter, at one point a fire took an outer building and burned the wall of the main building. And I guess this eventually spurned the owner to tear it down. It's too bad. I would go in there regularly to see what was new.

When I first pictured this image in my head it felt alive, like it was in the process of becoming. But it didn't come across as is, it needed actual life, so I added the ferns. Not big enough to detract from the image, but big enough to add movement.

I think it's funny.

I entered it into the Emeryville Celebration of the arts one year, and as an activity they had people write poetry about a piece. 2 people picked mine. They didn't think it was funny. But I’m honored and the writings are poignant. I'm glad they picked my art.