Morning

These strange days of winter in Key West. The mornings brighten up before seven depending on the cloud cover which has been intense and the air is cold to the touch and when it's windy, which is often, it's cold enough to give you goosebumps if you aren't used to this sort of mild cold weather. 

Rusty and I have been strangers to downtown for a while now and I have to say it took an act of determination to head downtown when I got off my sickbed. Key West is packed with people and of traffic there is enough that getting around is tedious. Our long lines probably aren't that long in a world where true traffic jams occur daily but around here the traffic is intense by local standards this time of year. And in my opinion this year is a heavy one.

At work we get a stream of parking complaints from people trying to cope with vehicles blocking driveways, abandoned and taking up space or badly parked and blocking sight lines on narrow streets. If you don't know how to parallel park you'd better get a bicycle because i have met people who break into a cold sweat when faced with a  narrow spot and they prefer to drive around looking for something better. I have even parked friends' cars for them. 

I have seen some pretty terrible road rage too as the city empties in the evening and the workers go back to the housing they can afford on neighboring islands. Now that I am working day shift I leave the police station at 6 in time to join the late departures  from the city which started emptying at four in the afternoon. Mix in local commuters with people from out of town going home and losing their minds in slow lines of cars and some people drive very peculiarly. 

I have stopped riding two wheelers as I don't want another catastrophe and the fun has gone out of riding when surrounded by angry drivers intent on dicing and slicing all in their way. 

So I find it  a great pleasure when I can slip into town, ignore my workplace and find a spot to leave my car before everyone is awake. I greatly enjoy walking the woods with Rusty to get away from the world but Key West is a great place to wander before the crowds burst out of their hangovers.

I was on the waterfront as the sun came up and illuminated the clouds with that fresh pink light and by the time Rusty and I had wandered back and forth across numerous intersections we arrived back at the car when the sun was well up.

As Rusty laid into a bowl of water I looked around and saw all these abstract forms surrounding the parking lot. I had a drive to get home but I was going to be against the traffic flow, Rusty would be on the back seat and I had no plans to return to Key West all day. That I can handle.

My car was recalled last month to fix the airbag problem that has affected vehicles all over the world. I think about that as I watch the weird antics of the drivers around me on Highway One. Patience. 

Key West's Third Man

There is a notion floating around in the contemporary photographic universe which posits that black and white photography is somehow a way to posture and add an arty label to mundane photos. I am not in a position to argue the merits but for me black and white is just another way to take a photograph. Night photos seem an obvious time for the monochrome effect but even in daylight I like to think about the possibilities of black and white when color is not necessarily called for. As for artistic pretensions I prefer to  try to tell stories with my pictures than create High Art. 

I do like the  effect of the black and white pictures as they remind me of the film noir genre produced by Hollywood, and others in the mid 20th century. Take for example that great mystery of a film which put its  musical score front and center as well. Mercifully I'm not claiming to be a composer at least.

I grant you it is a bit of a stretch comparing 21st century Key West to the rubble of Vienna after World War Two but looking back at this handful of photos puts me in mind of The Third Man. The British Film Institute says it's the greatest British film of all time, so I suppose my modest photos ought to be good and artistic!

 In the event I was wandering around the custom house and the shadow and light were wonderful. It's part of that strange anomalous mystique of key West. This is the town you associate with wooden houses, bright colors and picket fences overflowing with tropical foliage. That's my Key West. 

But when you look around there's that other town, the brick buildings and scabrous plaster, the light falling at an angle and the darkness...I love it.  This is Margaritaville Resort in the early hours as quiet as if it were unoccupied:

 Check out the Custom House Museum from a slight distance, across from the resort:

 And round the other corner the waterfront side, in color yes, but all washed out with himself bring a touch of the usual to the scene.

We ended up not walking far but in the expanding circles we made there seemed to be lots to look at. 

 I've seen a few of these stickers show up around town as though gentrification can be held back by thinking about it.  Money talks and eccentricity and non conformity are on the wane in Key West.

 I saw puddles on Wall Street near Duval:

 And this picture of Exchange Street looking toward Front I've taken a few times.

We turned our backs on it all and Rusty led the way to the car. He was ready for mangroves and wilderness and fewer human artifacts. Not at all like Harry Lime who needs to have people around him to keep himself in business.

Vignettes

One of the apartments loaned to me during my time living in Key West was close by the newspaper building on Northside Drive. I was aware the building is for sale but that knowledge did not decrease my distress every time I drove past the sign. For some years now the Key West Citizen has been printed in Miami and since Hurricane Irma the paper has appeared only six times a week, making it no longer the daily paper of the Keys.

I was actually surprised the paper returned at all after the hurricane but it has though it is not a dynamic institution at all anymore. Enterprise journalism in the modern era requires a certain electronic flair but the Citizen fails hopelessly at updating or following news online. Weekends are barren as the Sunday paper is gone and reporting is now essentially a Monday through Friday operation.

The building is decaying in front of our eyes, and when I stepped inside momentarily there was no sense of bustle or liveliness. I have never been a newspaper reporter but I have spent time in newsrooms in newspapers in my capacity as a radio reporter and the state of the  Citizen saddens me. We all know newspapers are in a  parlous state and reporting is suffering but the newspaper I remember as a dynamic afternoon paper printed in town and on the streets daily is shriveling before my eyes and seems to be going down without a fight.  Perhaps its the best we can hope for in this day and age, but I want to avert my eyes from the tragedy. 

In 2012 the Art In Public Places program of the City of Key West started posting poems on the sidewalks of the city. Apparently this brilliant idea didn't originate in Key West but in Minnesota but has been enthusiastically adopted here. I confess my photograph was not brilliantly executed and the writing is a bit hard to read but Rusty was tugging at his leash, always a good excuse...

...so I have included a note from the sidewalk poetry page by way of explanation:

Location 8 it turns out is across the street from the Banyan on Whitehead Street. It's between Eaton and Caroline Streets.

Just up the street is the Custom House Museum of Art and History. Sometimes it is misspelled as the Customs House but either way it has benches on the shaded porch and I enjoy people watching from the top of the steps. Steps that aren't easy to climb in my current physical state but I do love the view.

I posted this picture below on Instagram. Is it to obvious an irony, the flag flying high and proud over a closed circuit observation camera? 

I was discussing air conditioning with a friend and he said he doesn't need cold air even in summer. Me? I love my a/c especially in my car. Even at home I enjoy spending time outdoors heating up and then retreating to the cool indoor shade from time to time. And as for sleeping night or day a cool dark bedroom is the only way. I like air conditioning so I feel some considerable sympathy for the Conch Train drivers  protecting themselves from the winter sun:  

And yes, its every bit as warm as it looks.

Back at the museum I was peering through the eye of a fish statue when quite by chance I got a rather decent little picture. 

I though the tandem bicycle photo was cute but the steel fish was rather more robust actually. What possessed me to look through the eye with my camera I'm not sure.

Every winter you will see certain vehicles hanging around town for days weeks or months depending on the snowfall Up North. This winter it's this yellow metric cruiser overloaded with the kitchen sink. I suppose it's an adventure for the lone rider but I don't know how long I could hang around the same old  places without purpose. It works for him.

Higgs Beach at the African Cemetery. Monochrome art.

Ferron Bell

I have this unfortunate tendency to make connections and find things funny that most people don't. I have actually been berated for my public  sense of humor by those unhappy beings who don't share my sense of fun which sometimes comes across as too strong for those of a weak humorous disposition. I have never been moved to make artworks out of my puns but I take my hat off to a man whose work is currently exhibited at the Custom House on Front Street but ends on Sunday the 10th so I only just caught it. Lucky me. 

They call it Whimsy which when you look at the art is a good description. I knew I was going to enjoy the show and I did, very much. 

I had difficulty deciding what to photograph there were so many objects on display. 

The large picture below is titled "Hurricane Palms" but all I could hope to do is give you a small taste of the brilliance on display.

 Much is made of the fact that Bell did not make large sums of money from his art. He kept his prices accessible and apparently lived on the edge of financial ruin all his life.

Which is odd because his work is beautifully crafted and has a surreal Dali like quality. Like Dali the artists demonstrates superb technical competence.

 The pictures mostly are light, perfectly executed, in gorgeous arrays of color and I find it hard to imagine they would have been hard to sell had Bell had a mind to sell them for their full worth.

 He enjoyed playing with the royal palm concept too, below accompanied by a piece titled "Pigeon Key."

 Royal Palm:

Board Meeting:

The vertical piece on the left is titled 24 carrot.

From the Art and History Museum's website is wanted to paste these words as they will disappear soon enough as will the exhibit.

“Ferron’s work is unlike any other artist in Key West,” says Society Curator Cori Convertito, Ph.D.  “It is not idyllic.  It is not intended to evoke daydreams in tourists’ minds of swaying palm trees on a pristine beach.  Ferron was eccentric, and so was his artwork.”

That said, Bell had a self-professed love of palm trees and made them the subject of his final Key West exhibit – “Palm Sunday Show” – held on April Fools’ Day, 2012, a year before his death.  The three-hour pop-up held at Smokin’ Tuna Saloon was a benefit for The Sister Season Fund and the Gay/Straight Alliance at Key West High School, and (by his account) the largest collection of his work ever gathered for one show.

“There are many palms in the world and we have a great selection here in Key West,” Ferron wrote on his Facebook page when promoting his show. “We have Lipstick, Feather Duster, Gingerbread, Christmas, Old Man, Royal, Bottle Palms, and others… and each of them is unique and beautiful.”

True to his wit, paintings included a palm tree with its top shaped like a hand (“Palm Tree Dee”) and feather dusters flanking a lighthouse in lieu of feather duster palm trees (“Lighthouse Keeping”), among many other pun-inspired paintings.

“Ferron loved puns. His artwork typically involved a pun or a play on words,” says Convertito. “He took the lovely scenery around him and incorporated elements of nature (particularly birds) in a pun.  For example, he created various examples of a work he called ‘The Crow Bar’ which was, essentially, a murder of crows standing alongside a bar with cocktails in hand.” 

Bell’s passion and creativity were embraced by both of the island communities where he lived and worked.  In Key West, he was commissioned to paint entire rooms with tropical motifs and sold many of his pieces to friends who supported his quirky vision and nature.

 Ferron Bell lived on Fire Island for thirty five years, spending only winters in Key West:

 (Unfinished)  Crow Bar - my kind of pun so I put my shadow in the picture!

 Truman Annex.

 Eggcellent Day In The Keys:

Key West Art & Historical Society celebrates the legacy of one of the island’s most clever visual artists with “Art & Puns: The Whimsy of Ferron Bell”and a special opening reception from 6:00pm-7:00pm on Friday, December 7 in the Bumpus Gallery of the Custom House Museum located at 281 Front Street.  The exhibit runs through February 10, 2019.  The exhibit spotlights the quirky late artist’s trademark visual wit and whimsy, featuring work from private Key West collectors, personal photographs, and newspaper clippings about the unique personality widely known for his off-the-wall and humorous creations.

A self-taught artist, Thomas Ferron Bell began his career at the age of 16 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, moved to Fire Island Pines, New York when he was 21, later splitting his time and talents between there and Key West, Florida. Bell worked full time as an artist, cultivating his audience and frequently bartering and donating his work to fundraisers in the Key West community.