Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Basin Rd - parking lot #1

The first of my childhood homes that is now a parking lot...

This etching is of the house on  Basin Road which was the second house I lived in as a child... the first one was on Calhoun which was my address when I was born; they moved me here when I was 3 months old (actually born in CA). No one (that I've talked to lately) in my family can remember what the address was on Calhoun - but I think it was towards the park and not where the apts that were torn down in the 80's-90's. I think that is one that is still standing!

So, from the age of (?) 6 months to 4 1/2 years we lived in the house that no longer exists on Basin Road.  It was right across from what is now a B&B and the Wiley's. I guess my parents were going to buy it but the city condemned it because the foundation was giving way.  It would have ended up in the sandbox in Evergreen Bowl (known today as Cope Park). I would go down the very steep hill to play in the park when allowed.The Wiley's told me the owner had cables running from the house across the road and attached to the hillside to keep it from sliding down the hill - that was after we moved.  

That was the 70's when Juneau was a truly small town... everyone knew everyone and the valley was really the boondocks. The building boom happened in the 80's creating what I always thought of as the suburbs (ha!) until I actually lived outside of Denver.

My Dad worked at the State as a Computer Programmer and my Mom opened a macramé shop called "Lois' Hangups" in the Emporium mall.  I would hang out there occasionally... Foggy Mountain Shop opened soon after she did and I would play in the tents and I guess I colored on their walls which they hid with the tents~  There was a toy-maker who had a shop there as well and I would watch him create toys out of wood.

The carefree 70's!


Sunday, April 10, 2011

Centennial Hall Parking Lot

This is number two in the "Parking Lots That Were Once My Homes" series... this is just the etching, but each piece will consist of an etching of the modern day view and a relief/embossing of the old house... The houses are simplistic to represent my childhood memories of these places.  The relief/embossed images are supposed to be faded like the memories of them, almost like an afterimage that you would see after looking at a bright light.  My intention is to layer the two different media to compare and contrast them by superimposing the house image on top of the modern views of the places where they once stood.


Willoughby St. (Channel Apts)

First in the series of four "Parking Lots That Were Once My
Homes"...  It's the first etching, but it was the 2nd one that I live in after we moved back from CA in 1979.

This one was on the big corner on Willoughby.  3rd and 4th grade... use to walk up the stairs to Capital School.  We would play in the SOB parking garage - climbing up the sides and jumping off the top into the snow they would (and still do) pile up along the outside.  We all ran wild back then...  it was a smaller and safer town, but we could always find trouble if we looked hard enough!  Life further "out the road" was much different and running wild changed a lot when we moved to Lemon Creek when I was in 6th grade.  It meant running through the woods and playing near the creek since there really wasn't anything that was close enough or interesting enough to walk to.

West 10th & D

My latest etching of "Parking lots that were once my homes"...

This was at West 10th and D Street - We lived here the year the first Dividends went out and sat mesmerized in front of the TV when MTV first came on the air.  The church owned the house next door and ours - we did not attend... my parents were Unitarians but didn't make us go.  Someone left an old three speed bike in the garage and they told my Dad I could have it... freedom!  I rode all over - trying to keep in touch with friends in the old neighborhood, but they weren't as accepting of me now that I lived else-where.  It helped widen our world though and I made other friends and the old ones realized there were other neighborhoods to play in and explore.

Journey, Pat Benatar, The Police, J. Giles Band, Blondie etc were popular and this was the year I started buying records.  I bought a turntable at a garage sale and inherited an old boombox someone didn't want any more.  I remember begging to watch The Blue Lagoon on TV...

I walk part of the same route to work every day that I once walked on the way to Capital School - 5th grade.  I hated walking after a while and would beg my Dad to drive me... I don't think it ever worked.  Now I enjoy the exercise and love to look at the scenery that has changed very little since those days... houses are different colors and cars are modern but not much else is new on Calhoun.