SO WE’VE FINALLY gotten to the point where I can’t put this off any longer. For the past months my work schedule has been: Four days a week earning money to pay the bills and three working on attempting to advance my art storefront. (dreamflowerworks.art) to the point where it is earning money. Today is one of the latter. The primary task I’ve been consumed with has been doing post-production on the photos I shot when Toni and I went to Cleveland to see Albert Lee at the end of January. I’m still not done, but I’ve done most of the work and need to tell you — as a part of the task this blog is supposed to fulfill — what I’ve been up to.
I have to admit, this is filling me with trepidation is I don’t know how it’s going to come out. I have never posted more than a half-dozen photographs — not just here, but in any site I’ve developed — and I’m not entirely sure I want to use the WordPress theme I have installed now, because I’m not convinced its appropriate. We’ll see. So here goes.
One of the enthusiasms Toni and I exercise is shooting ghost signs. The Facebook group to which we are members has loosened its rules somewhat, but I find this being the most reliable definition: A ghost sign is one which originated within the past 200 years, is a commercial advertisement, painted on the side of a building — most commonly brick — and is presently in some stage of decay. Any time we go to a new place (as in Cleveland) or a familiar one (as in our home town of Cincinnati) we wander around, looking for ghosts.
On this last trip (who’m I kidding, we’ve done three trips since) we drove up to Cleveland on Monday, the 27th, wandered around on Tuesday the 28th, and drove home Wednesday the 29th. I’m not going to post all the photos that I shot and have made it through the post-processing filter as acceptable images (albeit not ones necessarily suitable for sale). I shot 150 or so images (not unusual) and have about 65 I consider minimally worthy.
This was one. It was a “ghost sign” shot. And when it was posted on the Ghost Signs group on Facebook, it got a mind-boggling response. The most I’ve ever gotten to any image I ever posted anywhere. It’s the employees entrance to an abandoned factory owned by Westinghouse Electric. To date, there have been 689 reactions to it, 82 comments, and 27 shares. So, even though it’s out of sequence, it will serve as an introduction to the story.
As the day goes on (and possible further — weeks), I’ll be attempting to wrestle this wad of photos into a comprehensible post or posts. So … stay tuned for more.