Captured Before The Trash is Collected He'd walked down these narrow streets before, always as the darkness was slipping away, retreating to some place a little more to the west. It never really vanished, just edged over like a dense cloud, making space for the first sun beams. Daylight coming in and darkness leaving makes magic at their intersection. This morning in Paris would prove special. He'd been on this sidewalk many times, passed the large green trash bins so often. Most days the trash was rubbish. Still, he always looked as he passed, just in case. After all, he'd found wonderful toy fire engines, heavy duty clothes hangers, wooden canes, stacks of art books, lamps and mismatched shades. He'd even found a Noguchi Akari lamp, not in pristine condition, but close enough. The inhabitants of Paris discard the strangest things. He at times wondered if these people understood exactly what they had jettisoned? On those rare occasions when he spie...

A Backside Not Intended to be Viewed A side devoid of interest for others Some, perhaps even you, may think I spend too much of my time in the Louvre looking at the backside of artworks I find a good deal of joy in focusing upon the unintended focus, the backside, the brushstrokes, measuring with my eyes or hands the width of the bolts of canvas and their orientation in an enormously humongous history painting Ah, the flip side of this Roman portrait bust: Geometric Purity, Secret Proto-Modernism Unveiled "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!"

Buckets and Buckets of Rain It had rained much of the night in Paris. One might call it a dark and stormy night. The Louvre night watchman who patrols the Grand Galerie of French Painting as well as the very elongated Italian Gallery noticed the rain pouring in, fortunately only in the Italian area. That night guard did what could be done with available resources, scrounged from lavatories and closets. Personally, I find this ad-hoc, jerry-rigged, miss-matched arangement of water-catchers an interesting installation, one that could remain on display in a contemporary Art museum, not the Louvre. No two buckets are alike. Yet together they prevented a flood! Diversity Prevails.

Portrait of a Broken Pea Green Chair Luxembourg Garden is behind me, as are the few busted metal chairs of which I made portraits. Those images remain in my phone. Mangled seats in the park are uncommon, carted off and replaced by fresh metal duplicates. I record those I am fortunate to stumble upon. The broken chairs of my Paris park are now in my rear view mirror. I am back in the USA. Are broken seats replaced here? Or are they roughly hauled off to the dump with democracy?

No Time For a Postcard Here we have time only for a quick message not a postal card there is no time to find purchase, buy postage write an address, scribble some thought or endearment and push a card through a slot into the hands of a letter carrier Today everything moves too quickly please: put a stamp on it and drop it in a big metal box Just for kicks, GO OLD SCHOOL

Visual Inventory Two plastic cacti, A blue American Express sticker The obvious yellow drape In an otherwise vacant Eyeglass shop on rue Saint Suplice Full Laundry Basket Who will help me Sort and fold this Laundry basket full Of wrinkled metaphors? After Pouring Coffee After pouring the first cup The work begins of sorting words: Matching socks from the dryer A Second Cup of Coffee I am going to put a period To mark the moment I get up to pour my Second cup of coffee . Sunlight Falls Upon Sunlight falls upon this cup Abandoned on the sidewalk I stop, choose to aim my camera Stunned by the beauty