Cyanotype Surprise

For years, I never really noticed this:

staples

Then one day in Broad Ripple, walking passed a pocked-up utility pole, I was struck by the strange beauty of the staples. Not to mention all of the scrappy hope that went into posting them there.

Each one represented a band who hoped you’d go to their show, a small business looking to build up a tribe and the like. Call them rust or litter, I can’t see (or unsee) them as I once did.

Last Friday in Fountain Square I discovered I’m not the only one who has found inspiration in the stapled-up utility pole, though this was of a different sort:

butterflies

I caught Tasha Lewis in the middle of her installation of these cyanotype butterflies on Virgina Avenue across from the Murphy Center. She uses tiny, but powerful magnets to attach these winged creatures to the staples left behind from flyers of yore. There’s just something about stumbling onto art in unexpected places. Love seeing stuff like this in Indy.