One of my all time favorite quotes is this one from Robert Louis Stevenson:
"Some places speak distinctly. Certain dark gardens cry aloud for a murder; certain old houses demand to be haunted; certain coasts are set apart for shipwrecks."
In my mind this quote is irrevocably linked to this photo:
This is probably my all-time favorite photograph. I took it several years ago at the old zoo in Pueblo, Colorado. This was part of a closed-down exhibit that had housed monkeys. I imagine it has been renovated and reopened by now. Probably all bright and shiny and full of happyish spider monkeys. Some days I can tell you exactly what is at the top of those stairs and some days I have no idea.
I tell you that to ask you this - do you have a favorite painting? Something you lust after? Something you own? You lost? My favorite painting looks a lot like this photo. I saw it in an upstairs room of a junky antique store on Route 66 in Amarillo. Imagine a stone cross at the top of the staircase in this photo. It is night and a young girl in a white shift is draped over the monument, probably mourning. It was horribly hokey and I didn't buy it. I have regretted it ever since. I can't tell you what I really like about it, but it is a quest for me. Each antique store, garage sale, or thrift shop I enter could be hiding that painting. One day I will track it down. I have no idea why I was/am so fixated with the painting. [Insert psychoanalytic mumbo-jumbo here.] It is really frighteningly bad - the proportion was screwy, the subject matter maudlin, but...
What do you quest for?
5 comments:
right now, at this moment my quest is sleep. It's 4AM and I'm still not asleep. And this makes me angry.
But I digress. I have a color that I love and I look for everything in it. Clothing, socks, anything. I have pajamas in that color that don't fit anymore but I keep them because they are just about EXACTLY the right color. It's rare to find anything that's just right. It's the color of the blue/green irridescent shimmer in a peacock's tail feather. It is only even THERE when the light is just right.
Is the quote dark or dank?
Either way it's good.
Ooh, the one that got away. I will have to ponder that. There's a Chagall I love, and (a print of) it will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine.
Eerk! It is dark. Thanks! A dank garden is nowhere near as nice! ha!
I was doing a google search for a "dark" picture. The picture of your Dark Garden came up. I think that is an awesome picture. For some odd reason I just REALLY wanted you do know that.
I know exactky how you feel. :)
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