I've spent the better part of the week holed-up with a horrid cold, rapidly consuming page after page of fantasy-cum-reality interiors, amongst other things like: tea & soup. I've amassed a sound collection of books over the years, and I adore every aspect of the home library, particularly creative storage ideas. I'd like to share some photos on that theme (!enjoy!) :
At times I want to be buried! Really though, a sea of bound works is soooo appealing. Comfortable spaces, seating...lighting. Inspiration.from there to here:
The small, splintery & rusted effigies John Taylor has created are nothing if not wondrous.
"Working with found objects collected from around his southern California surroundings, John works in his garage on evenings and weekends. His ships are interpretations rather than models, as John works from a particular feeling he may get and want to convey from an archived image found in a book or on the internet. His ships look as if they have been buried or under water for half a century, but their near-disintegrated appearance showcase his ability to fearlessly manipulate detritus, and also display a well thought out methodology."
Mr. Taylor's work resonates languidly throughout my grey matter...faring tidal surges and stilled, humid evenings adrift along winding, muddy waters. His pieces show the weathered, abandoned remains of some of the worlds most famous vessels. Not necessarily how they are...or how they were, they reside somewhere forgotten; delicately decayed. Upon exploration, my mind brightened at the recollection of my Grandparent's summer home on the reservoir in the Berkshires and their assortment of regal yet diminutive ships housed over the fire...and all the lazy afternoons spent playing amidst the treasures they'd amassed over the years they spent together.
Every detail is careful, poignant and somehow restrained in it's sense of dereliction. Perfect. I was delighted to happen upon an old and very cherished memory within the assortment of liners, schooners, ferries, arcs and such:
"Kalakala" 2005The Kalakala was the "World's First Stream Line Ferry". She is the greatest floating icon of the Art Deco era.
Shortly after starting her career, the Kalakala embarked o n "Moonlight Cruises" on Puget Sound. She had her own band, "The Flying Bird Orchestra" which made live broadcasts from the ferry (the first of their kind).
"Passengers danced to the swing music of the Flying Bird Orchestra from 8:30-12:30 p.m. for only $1.00. People met t heir future spouses on these festive cruises, and life-long memories were made dancing to the sounds of Benny Goodman and Glen Miller as the Kalakala cruised aimlessly around Puget Sound under star-filled skies. For those few hours, life aboard the Kalakala relegated the Depression to the background, and gave people a break from the stress of those hard times. After the outbreak of World War II, the ferry's role became critical, carrying workers to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard."
After nearly 39 years of service, the Kalakala made her final trip from Bremerton to Seattle on August 6th of 1967. She was towed from Eagle Harbor to begin the second phase of her career: a floating crab processing plant in Alaska...She was broken further up in Alaska, deemed inept and stripped of her spiral staircases, streamlined interior booths & diner counters. It was not until the late 1990's that she made her final voyage home....to rest and slowly rot, moored in Puget Sound.
Many, many mornings, afternoons and evenings I spied her there, through the windows of moving vehicles over the bridge, at the end of Lake Union, through the grasses and traffic of the progressing world. I wondered at her, what she was, fantasizing a slow and stealthy boarding to admire her hulls and halls, her rust-frozen decks groaning with my footsteps, the grit eroding her further beneath my feet. Alas, like so many places, I never quite made it there...until I did?
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