Alphabet City Press

10 February 20139 February 2013

Keep clear

The bold sweep of white on dark grey and the distressed yellow lettering remind me of some sort of Rauschenberg-Motherwell concoction, if such a thing could exist. It has Rauschenberg’s printmaking-plus-found-object quality, Motherwell’s dynamism and strength. Robert Rauschenberg was known to have inked the wheel of a car and run over paper to create a drawing. As for Robert Motherwell: his body of work, everything from his huge black and white paintings to his small works on paper, is astonishing in its expressiveness and emotional depth.

7 February 20136 February 2013

Lightning

That flash of light in the sky during a thunderstorm is caused by an electrical discharge (about 100 million volts – take that you mere mortals!) which has built up in a cumulonimbus cloud. No wonder the lightning bolt is an important symbol in the mythologies of many cultures. It typically represents instant and divine intervention, and is seen as both creator and destroyer, fire and water, salvation and divinity, and supernatural power. This humble lightning bolt has seen better days, but I like it just the way it is: as if roughly coloured in using a stencil and a black texta with not quite enough ink. And it’s in good company with that rust and peeling paint.

4 February 20134 February 2013

Cobargo

Cobargo is a village on the south coast of New South Wales with a population of less than 500 people. It was settled in the 1820s when graziers moved stock into the area and by 1871 there was a school, post office, store, hotel, church and blacksmith shop, and by the 1890s the town even had its own newspaper. A branch of the Bank of New South Wales opened in 1903, and in 1917 operated from its new office on the corner of Bermagui Road until it closed in 1997. The Cobargo streetscape features beautiful turn-of-the-century buildings, many now occupied by local artisans, but it seems most fortuitous that a brewing supplier should occupy the bank building, where they have made excellent use of the existing sign.

1 February 201326 January 2013

Nine

My friend found this number nine during her neighbourhood wanderings and was most taken with it, and keen that I should see it too. And it is indeed a most splendid number nine: bold and flamboyant but simultaneously a little secretive and teasing, not only because it tempts you to open the door and see if more will be revealed, but because it is circumscribed by shadowy greenery that hints at an inner life.

29 January 201326 January 2013

Good sir

I call this wild-eyed green-haired creature the Good Sir of Goodsir. I think it’s fabulous! It adorns a wall on the corner of Mullens and Goodsir Streets in Rozelle, a wall which even without this illustrative graffiti is a work of art, with its rich textures of layer upon layer of worn paint and the shadow of painted signage underneath it all. I can’t make up my mind if the Good Sir is protecting the corner or alarmed at the threat of being pushed out by the drop shadow: but so far the Good Sir remains, guarding Goodsir.

26 January 201326 January 2013

Neon hotel

This glowing hotel typeface is very Park Avenue, with its distinctive swishy capital letters – and quite appropriate given its location on the main street of Potts Point, which is a little bit New York. Park Avenue was designed in 1933 by Robert E Smith for American Type Founders. ATF was formed in 1892 by the merger of 23 type foundries, and was the dominant American manufacturer of metal type for many years. Robert E Smith also designed Brush Script.

23 January 201323 January 2013

Map

Weather, wear and tear, neglect and dilapidation can turn the ordinary into something unexpected and interesting. This peeling paint speaks to me of another world with rugged coastlines, vast interiors, island continents and uncharted territories. If I tried to paint this I couldn’t but I would see it in my imagination and want to explore those alien lands.

20 January 201319 January 2013

Ack

I had not been along the entrance side of this building for quite some time, so it is only recently I saw that the old letters had been replaced by bigger newer brighter ones. I don’t know how the A managed to escape removal, but in my mind I have bestowed it with tenacity and strength of character, a letter determined to hang on at any cost. This is far preferable to viewing it as a victim of neglect! The new C is obviously, and admirably, conspiring to help.

17 January 201317 January 2013

Smokes

Here’s something you don’t see much of these health-conscious no-smoking days. This sign hangs outside what must be the most derelict milk bar in Sydney. The lights are never on and I’ve never seen anyone inside (in fact it’s a little scary) but it opens every day and still has the original booths along the wall and lino on the floor, albeit in disrepair. When the cinema next door was demolished the side wall revealed some original painted advertising, and although that has been covered up again, the smokes and sweets sign remains.

14 January 201314 January 2013

Brick wall

Last week I attended an artist’s book course at the Sturt Centre in Mittagong. Each afternoon the sun blazed onto this brick wall just outside our classroom, making the shadow of the clothesline particularly striking against the stark clarity of the various brick colours and textures. Despite the uncomfortable heatwave conditions, the reflected heat from the bricks was strangely soothing, like getting into a car that has been parked in the sun on a clear winter’s day.