North African "Stucco Art" ...

Yeah, I guess I've been a fan of this type of "BRICK ART" longer that I thought!

Yeah, I like taking images of ART, where someone, somewhere, paints anything on the side of any building, anywhere, and anyway that works for them! Like on this great STUCCO covered wall, that I found over in Morocco a few years ago ... Where, yeah, I'm pretty sure there were some type of BRICK underneath all that "white stuff" that is EVERYWHERE in that part of the world!

NORTH AFRICA.

Yeah, very different from the BRICK ART I got "hooked on", you know, during the Pandemic here a few years ago! I guess that comes from the American version I became used to from studying the old photos at Grad School from The Great Depression, like, from right here in the United States, back in the 1930s, '40s, and yeah, right up to the present time, where they "took it up a notch or two" all across the country!

Yeah, from "SIGNS" to "BRICK ART", you know, the whole thing about painting bricks that has become a major "art form" across the country!

And yes! I really got into in there for a couple of years where I couldn't really go anywhere ... But I do remember going over and getting my mother, who was in a Nursing Home at the time, and yeah, driving around with her son, that she might not have know just who he was at the time, but yeah, she liked the ride, and knew I was the one, with the cool, little, sports car, and who got her out of her room, and out on the road, "with the top down", just driving around looking for BRICK ART, like right here in Caldwell County, North Carolina!

She enjoyed the ride, that was for sure!

As did I.

Took me back to my Graduate School days, out there in Chicago, where I first got hooked on the old black and white photos from just about the time, and place, my mother was born and lived! Although yeah, she was actually born right "outside" New York City, you know, just across the river in New Jersey, but yeah, they later moved to Indiana, you know, near Chicago ... Yes! My grandfather, on her side of the family, worked in the chocolate industry during The Great Depression, and yeah, they moved around quite a bit, going from one candy factory to the next!

Until they settled down about ten years later, in rural Upstate New York, and yeah, far removed from making any type of candy! Yeah, somehow (I have no clue!), him and his son, my uncle, became Silver-Platers, or whatever you call them! Yeah, I can still remember walking around his "workshop", which was like right in one section of the house/garage area, and yeah, all those "chemicals", or whatever, and yeah, the smells ... Trust me, as a young kid, I had to actually be careful out there! It was quite the place! I really didn't understand just what was going on at the time, but yeah, dipping pots, and lamps, and all kinds of "metal products" into these different container things, with the different chemicals in them, oh yeah! It was a TRIP!

And yeah, it also seemed like he could fix ANYTHING!

And then there was me! Yeah, I couldn't hammer a nail straight! Or build anything! Or work on anything ... And I mean, from being a "little kid" right up into my twenties, and beyond! Oh yeah, you should have been around one of his camps, like, YEARS later, when I was trying to help him nail a piece of old, paneling over the side of one of his his camps, where the porcupines had chewed into the camp ...

It was "loose", and I couldn't get the piece of panelling to stop "bouncing" away from the building! He got so mad at me! And of course, I didn't help any with all my "giggles"! Oh yeah! That was funny!

And CRAZY!

And yes! I think "we got it", you know, once he took over, and finished up everything!

Like I said, I was never handy with tools!

Even with all my motorcycles ... But yeah, man! Could I keep 'em CLEAN! And POLISHED! And SHINED! Oh yeah! Now THAT, I could do!

And did for years!

Which reminds me! Yeah, one year, like during high school, my Senior year, while living with my grandfather "up in the woods", yeah, I was driving my Yamaha 200, which, yeah, was still rather new, if I remember correctly, yeah ... And I took it out for an afternoon ride, on the old, GRAVEL/DIRT road my grandfather lived off of, on a "street bike", with nice, STREET tires, and can remember going down a little hill, around this nice, tight, little curve, like I had done HUNDREDS of times before ... Yeah.

It didn't end well.

Off the side of the road I went! And no! I wasn't going THAT fast, but yeah, the tachometer, ended taking the worst of it, and the only real, damage, you know, once I picked the bike up out of the bushes, and got it back up on the road!

No problem ...

Except, yeah, that tachometer!

No problem ... Like I said, my uncle could "fix anything"!

Except he didn't have the right "tool".

So, he simply "made one", and "fixed it" for me!

Yeah, he "cut out" this thin, little, piece of metal, and made a "Special Tool" out of it to tighten whatever it was that was holding my tachometer together.

Or whatever!

Like I said, I had no clue!

Now true, I did sell that bike (it was a "two-stroke" bike, where I add to add oil to the gas. and yeah, that drove me nuts!) right after that, you know, for a brand-new, four-stroke, Honda motorcycle, what was it?

Oh yeah, the then new, CB360cc Honda!

Yeah, that worked out pretty good, if I do say so myself!

And yeah, that tachometer looked, and worked, just fine! That said, I can't remember if I sold it, or "traded it in", but yeah, it didn't matter!

Yeah, that next summer after graduation, that new Honda got me from that same house, and road, all the way to Douglas, Arizona, by way of Chicago (my other Aunt and Uncle!), and back ... With no problems! You know, for an EIGHTEEN year old kid!

Wait! How did I get from that, to ...

What?

This?

Say what?

Ha! Welcome to MY WORLD!

And yeah, what I like to refer to as "THE POWER OF THE PHOTOGRAPH"!

And yeah, that's all I need to say about that! I mean, come on! You were "right here with me", you know!

That is how my brain works, or doesn't work, depending on what you think about it ...

Seems perfect to me!

But yeah, that's just me!

Enjoy your PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNEY, no two will ever be the same!

Thank goodness.

Hope you enjoy yours as much as I have.

Lots of images, lots of memories, and yes! Lots, and lots of stories ... One story (at least!), for every image!

Good luck with that!

And yes! The stories tend to "get better", the longer it has been since you took it!

What was I?

Like SEVENTEEN years old when I missed that curve?

SEVENTEEN to SEVENTY!

Now that's pretty cool, now that I thought about it, and actually saw it in writing, or typing, whichever way you say, or type it!

Or whatever!

And yeah, look at it!

Ha!

What a life.

Get out there, and see what you can write about when you hit this "milestone" (70)!

Enjoy the "ride"!

I have.

You know, for the most part ...

That's LIFE.

And PHOTOGRAPHY.

Make the best of yours!

Get out there!

Make your memories.

Enjoy them while you can ...