My schedule this semester is putting me behind the eight ball, but I didn’t want to miss Halloween. I have some neighbors who really do justice to the season and so most of this is from their display.
This is what happens when you don’t brush your teeth, right?
I guess this is her sister, bad orthodontistry.
And these guys — not from anybody’s seasonal display. But don’t they look as if they’re saying trick or treat?
Hope yours is full of fun.
The circle is such an attractive shape. Even if I had the ability to speculate why, I wouldn’t get into that here (books and books about it), but the ghost of all that speculation — geometric, psychological, occult and esoteric — hangs around it. Around, indeed. Around and around, circles draw the eye and they draw my eye, maybe more than most any shape.
Even when they’re not particularly beautiful, circles compel attention.
invoking all those ideas about them — unity, fullness, ripeness, oh we could go on and on.
and we could remark about their usefulness
but wouldn’t that be redundant?
and beside the point?
But the circle would still draw the eye.
Even when it’s not quite there.
The easy answer, of course, is at the antique store, at the second-hand shop, maybe, in your attic. Not in mine, I’m sorry to say. I have a rocking chair, but it dates to 1989 and you can tell.
It isn’t very comfortable either — at least for me. At one time in my life (somewhere in the 90’s) I had a group that met regularly at my apartment. One tall young man always took this chair. Then I realized why it wasn’t comfortable for (short) me. Rocking chairs have a symbolic quality, not just because they’re what we’re supposed to be sitting in, whiling away old age. At least I choose to think that. I think they might stand for ease in company — for anybody.
A favorite aunt brought me to the first second-hand store I ever went to. We had to drive quite a distance to find it. In our rural area, if you were done with something, you just gave it to somebody else. It was quite amazing to find you could just go out to a store and find treasures. These photos were take outside Circa, one of my favorite treasure hordes.
And this is the item I would have bought, had I the money or space for it. I likes these bowls too.
and this
and I was tempted (as always) to go inside.
But this is what I really would have bought. Doesn’t it look comfy?
Putting goods on display must be as old as commerce itself — so it’s not hard to imagine how the first merchants to have windows on their shops realized they could fill those windows with display. Display nobody could handle, but everybody could dream over. This is the Flax window (I’ll bet you could tell) on the downtown mall. They change their display regularly. It’s always attractive.
And always somewhat the same, even in its differences. I like to catch it at the seasons. The above is from Christmas 2012. Below is a more recent shot. The sale is over now and so is the summer season that provoked it.
It’s a concept that’s disappearing in some parts of the world, but Charlottesville still has one. The parking is difficult, but the offerings are attractive.
and varied.
There’s entertainment too.
and it’s a place where people congreate.
and look for help.
Like most photographers, I try to stay out of the picture — at least, when it’s by accident. Sometimes it just happens.
Like here. And
oops, here.
They live among us, these figures of belief. This one I found outside an apartment where I was living. I don’t doubt that the person who put it there meant to remind us, in some way or other, of the great saint who loved all living things. And the figure below, from a Buddhist garden is also, I’m sure, meant to bring to mind something more than ornamentation.
Then there’s a more ambiguous category. Like this Buddha from a friend’s garden. It expresses, maybe not belief, but certainly, solidarity.
Some things are more ambiguous still. I’m not sure what to make of this fellow below. But that’s just my ignorance. Perhaps somebody knows.
About these last, maybe it’s anybody’s guess. Anyway, there were for sale.
Whaddya Mean Rosebuds? 