Manic Sunday - The Art Life

Devil's Pool is located on the border of Chestnut Hill and West Mt Airy in Philadelphia's Wissahickon Park. It's a small watering hole flanked by two-stories of rocks and boulders. The locals, and now because of its popularity, not-so-locals enjoy jumping into the pool on hot Summer days.

Devil's Pool has become controversial over the last several years due to crowding, trash, graffiti, injuries, and noise. 

Entire families hike through the woods carrying their children, coolers, chairs, and even grilles but very few take their trash back out with them. It's those few, that give the place a bad reputation with the locals.

After sitting and photographing some of the regulars, some who've moved to Philly from Trinidad only 3 years ago are the opposite, they are most respectful of the pool.

Many photographers have photographed Devil's Pool lately and there's even been a book published but somehow most of the photos seem to be lacking good composition, emotion or give an overall experience of the area. 

To be honest, it's not the easiest place to photograph and there aren't many good vantage points without getting in the way of the divers or standing chest high in the water. A zoom lens is a must and so is a weatherproof camera and good hiking shoes.

Getting back to the photos I've seen, all are in color which seems to be distracting with the stark light coming through all of the foliage and it only gets worse the further you stand back. I looked at the color photos I took and felt no different until I converted them to black and white where I could adjust contrast, dodge and burn the photos and not have to worry about grain. Motion, blur and grain all look better in black and white.

I enjoyed spending a few hours there with the purpose of taking photos and it might be some I pursue more often since the pool is so close to me.

This week I carried my snapshot album of diner photos to Bob's and it made a big difference in attitudes towards letting me photograph customers. Once guests witnessed the owner, staff and regulars looking at the photos I guess they wanted to be part of it. Every Monday I'll print the weeks photos from Bob's, if there are any, and add them to the album.

Continuing with my small watercolor portraits. I really enjoy painting these and I hope to have several pads full of these by the end of the year. I'm still using TV as my source of ideas.
Unfortunately all the art supply stores near me are out of this watercolor pad so I was forced to order them online. So no new portraits until next weekend. 

What I'm currently reading. This book has me thinking a lot about my decades in a real loft. Actually I spent more than half of my life in these places that were built solely for industrial purposes. 

I say "real" because today loft is a trendy fashion accessory or for those who want to feel like they are part of something cool. I laugh and scream at what people call lofts or artist lofts today; polished concrete or Brazilian hardwood floors with granite or quartz countertops and stainless appliances. And that's only the beginning with double or triple pane windows, central air, walled off rooms and what ever other polished accessory they can think of to disguise. 

One of the biggest jokes is calling lofts under 1000 square feet "huge". Real lofts measured in the thousands, had uneven floors, leaked when it rained and snowed, had no central air, barely a kitchen, if at all.. a bathroom that was reminiscent of the subway, exposed plumbing, wires, heaters, etc. 

The caged elevators rarely worked and floors and ceilings creaked and moaned. They weren't wired for cable, internet and sometimes even a phone. You didn't worry if you got paint on the floors or walls and most of your furnishings were found items from the neighbor. Those who live in so called lofts today wouldn't last more that a few months in a real artist loft even though they constantly romanticize about the lifestyle which wasn't a lifestyle. It was a necessity for artists who needed a large cheap place to work and live. 

Because of these places I was able to create paintings that were 10 feet long and not care what got on the floor. Sure artists tried to fix up their space and with items scavenged locally created very eclectic environments in which to work and live. I said work before live because thats what was most important. Sadly the artist loft is almost extinct and I had every intention to spend the rest of my life in one but after three and half waves of gentrification and scores of boring cornballs, boring businesses moving in with also the retreat of the 24 hour city it was time to leave and put some distance between me and them.