Stencils - "The Child"

Here's another piece by "C215" - the stencil artist from Paris.

This one was much smaller and incorporated more than one color. It was just around the corner from Campo San Basegio, along the fondamenta near Calle d. Chiesa.


I find it curious that this artist places his work in such precarious locations. Some of the pieces I've seen on his page and other internet pages depict his stencil work on the sides of trash cans and derelict buildings which could be demolished or repainted at any time. This one was sprayed onto a part of the wall which would likely crack and disintegrate, falling off the wall in less than a year or two.


If you do a search for "C215" you'll find more of his work. Here's a nice collection of his street art. When you're ready to dive in to his work for a long time, go to www.c215.com and engross yourself in the flickr photostream - I must have spent an hour just watching the images go by.

Stencils - Looking Up

Just a few steps away from the San Basilio vaporetto stop, lies a tiny little campo known as Campo San Basegio. There, on a metal door that's probably older than I am (possible older than my father), I saw this terrific piece of stencil work.

It could be an image of Christ, of a nun or just a woman looking up. The use of only one color, with a great emphasis on negative space caused me to stand and stare for some time.

In the upper left-hand corner there's a small signature that looks like a geometric cube shape with "C215". Without delay I realized that the person responsible for this piece is serious about their art. They've chosen a somewhat unconventional form, but the quality is there, and deserving of a signature.

I went hunting around the internet for more stencils with "C215" and found out that the artist is quite accomplished and well-traveled - he lives in Paris and his work is found in cities all over the world.

Here's his MySpace page with many more of his creations. Most of his pieces are literally "street art", and many incorporate more than just one color.

An Honest Woman in Venezia

this photo by Nereo Zane

Most of the bridges in Venice today are made of stone.
There are a few wooden ones and even a few iron bridges.
This post is about one such bridge.

Several years ago I was running around La Serenissima, trying to keep up with Nereo Zane, and he showed me this unusual bridge. It wasn't very big, and didn't seem to be all that important. But it became clear that this bridge was worthy of regard.

The bridge is called il Ponte della Donna Onesta.

I did notice that the bridge looked a little different - it wasn't like the big heavy stone ones so prevalent in Venice. Nereo told me that this was the "Bridge of the Honest Woman".

I took a few photos of my own and then we moved on. Recently I contacted him about it and he gave me a few of the "legends" behind this unusual bridge.

Nereo writes:
there are severals legends about the "Ponte della Donna Onesta"

1st legend: Close to the bridge there was a sword maker living there with his young and pretty wife. A noble was in love with that woman and one day ordered a sword or a dagger from her husband as a trick to have the possibility to see and stay alone with her. The woman refused the advance from the noble so he raped and then killed her.

2nd legend: same as above but the husband (or a friend of her) arrived and saved the woman killing the noble with the dagger.

3rd legend: The only honest woman in Venice is the one whose face is embedded in the external wall of the house near that bridge.

4th legend: It seems that in that house lived and worked an "honest" prostitute.

5th legend: There are some documents that demonstrate that a woman whose name was "Honesta" in the '500 lived there.

6th legend: a bunch of friends were joking about Venetian women's honesty. One said that when the first honest woman crosses the bridge it will collapse ... but the bridge is still there!!

I love things like this. You never know what the real story is, but it doesn't matter - all the possible legends are fascinating.

One sure detail that we know of is that the bridge was made of iron - unusual in Venice. There are (and have been) iron bridges there in the past, but the standard masonry approach is far more prevalent.

A closer look at the side of the Ponte Donna Onesta reveals that the main frame was produced by Fonderia Layet. And while I don't know much about the Layet Foudry, I can tell you that they built a nice little bridge which seems to do the job there in Dorsoduro.

Training in Texas

photo by Matthew Schenk

Matt took this photo a few days ago in Irving, Texas. That's gondolier Nick Hansen out for a training row in the canals of Las Colinas on Lake Carolyn.

Tri-Row with Tim and Chris

Yesterday I joined up with Tim Reinard, owner of Sunset Gondola and gondolier Chris Baisz.

We set out on the pupparin and had a great row on a sunny November day.

Rowing trio is a little different from tandem or quattro. Tim had his work cut out for him keeping the boat on course, but he was on top of it the whole time.

Our adventure wouldn't be the same without the Strap-Cam. I climbed out to the bow and wrapped it tight. The footage was pretty good, so I threw it into a little video which I hope you can see below. My plan was to get this post up last night but the video upload process had other plans. Let's just say that I'm better at rowing than I am at computers.

The camera angle didn't catch much of Chris, but you can see his remo working right alongside mine.

Enjoy!

Eight Great photos from the Poppa

Tim at Sunset Gondola just published a post on his blog with some great images - many taken while rowing.
Take a look, leave relevant comments.
Buttercows need not apply.

Stencils - "Wrong Way"

I'm not really sure what the thinking was with this one, but it cracked me up.
Was the stencil-painter trying to confuse people, or did he or she just harbor some kind of resentment towards Ponte de S. Basegio?

Green Cavalli

As I navigate the maze that is Venice, there are some spots I go to deliberately, to shoot photos and observe. Then there are those places I always just seem to stumble upon.
The Ponte dei Ferali is one of those places.
It's right by the Bampa brothers' hat shop, and not terribly far from Piazza San Marco. Each time I happen by that bridge, there's at least one gondola there, and it's usually something more than a "fleet boat". The other thing about the Ponte dei Ferali is that you can usually find one or two gondoliers sitting on a bench there on the fondamenta.
This is the same spot where I photographed the "brown shoe gondoliers" back in 2000 and the "two wedding gondolas" in 2006. Another post, "Illusion" was based on a photo from that same pair of wedding gondolas.

This time we're here to admire a boat with some very unique cavalli. I shot these photos in June of this year.
The trumpeting angel design is unique, but not altogether rare - it's the finish on those angels that deserves a closer look.
They appear to be green.

She's a "wedding gondola"; you can tell from the bow deck which is adorned with complete carvings. In addition to the carvings, the boat has many other luxury features, such as gold-leaf details and a nice brocade seat cover.

I always get a kick out of the way some gondoliers hang out by their boats looking like animals at the zoo. In some places they are animated - interacting with passersby, but in other places, like the Ponte dei Ferali, they seem to just exist there, while people walk by and observe.
I can just see the tourist couple from Texas walking by:
"Oh look honey, it's one of those gondoliers"
"Sure is baby-doll, take a picture for the folks back home"
The conversation takes place right there, within earshot of the gondolier, and it doesn't seem to register with the tourists that the gondolier can hear them...and speaks english.

As with nearly every place in Venice, there's a story behind the name :"Ponte dei Ferali". A few centuries ago this was an area known for the lamp-makers, who lived and worked near this bridge. "Ferali" is a dialect word for lamps, which in the 1700's were officially implemented in Venice.

Each time I visited this spot, the finishing touch of Ponte dei Ferali was a set of red and white striped paline. They looked like well-worn candy canes. I noticed this year that the "candy canes" have been replaced with poles that are all red with white tops. Hopefully those are temporary - I miss the cliche red and white striped ones.

Here's a good view of the hand-carved bow deck, with classic allegorical characters: And now let's get a closer look at those cavalli: At first glance they seem to have a natural patina, like the oxidation you might find on a copper roof, but it looks as though the gondolier had them specially finished that way.

It's a rather convincing finish, and in a city where almost every gondola has brass-toned cavalli, who can blame a guy for trying something different.

It also looks like one of those angels is missing a trumpet.

In this last shot you can see a few of the ferali mounted to the wall above the gondola.

Just the Photo - "Sunny Day on the Grand Canal"