Jack Barker 1933-2012
I’ve passed through the small town of Essex, IL (population 803) hundreds of times over the years. It was more or less the midpoint between my grandmother’s home in Thawville and Chicago’s western suburbs, where I lived. My grandmother passed away in 2010, but I had the occasion to drive through Essex last weekend. I was looking forward to seeing once again the metal artwork of Jack Barker, who routinely had dozens of his creations on display in front of his studio on the main drag through Essex. Sadly, I found only two recycled-metal sculptures outside his studio on Saturday, one of the horse shown below, the other a unicorn that looked like something a Game of Thrones Wilding might ride.
The spareness of the art studio was explained to me Saturday night, when a web search led to the discovery that Jack died a year ago this month.
At the intersection of nature and mass transit
On a recent weekday morning, I used an audio recorder to capture the sound of a woodpecker in my backyard. Listening to the recording, I heard the bird steadfastly boring into a nearby pine tree, but I also picked up a multitude of other sounds — a Metra train heading into Chicago, a jet flying to or from O’Hare, cars making their way up and down Highway 43, a barking dog, chirping birds, a creature of some kind scampering across my deck. It quickly became evident to me why my wife and I typically wake up at 5:30 each morning. The combination of nature and mass transit does not make for good slumber. It does, however, make for an aurally rich way to start the day.
Openlands
Prairie grass, cattails, and a cluster of trees photographed at Openlands Lakeshore Preserve, a meticulously restored ravine and bluff ecosystem 25 miles north of Chicago in Fort Sheridan, IL. Trees dot the edge of the preserve’s ravine, which along its eastern edge plunges sharply to the Lake Michigan shoreline.
