bat shit crazy!

Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2015 15:33:03 -0500

Bat shit crazy! A preliminary proposal story.

Dear Robin and Karen,

Here's a shot at "Form follows fiction".

Let me know if I'm on the right track, will ya? Open to suggestions but running a little short on time.

I have included prices of work as ballpark examples of my pricing.

I will be out of town from September 8 - 20th. My cell is 512-474-9980

Thanks!

XOBen

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Travel journal entry – July 23, 2015.

I'm so glad I decided to come to Austin instead of Chicago.

Here’s what’s up tonight so far, as I am having a fabulous night already. I'm at the corner of Cesar Chavez and Congress in the Radisson Hotel, dining at this really cool and beautiful restaurant. There is the most amazing art in here.. I am quickly getting, especially after watching the Jimmy Kimmel SXSW Austin show, that neon and big hand painted murals are the iconic mediums that stand out big time as a very contemporary yet old school expression of Austin's unique vitality.

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Karen Maness - paints!

What a beautiful and comfortable atmosphere this restaurant has. The wait person is easy going and accommodating while the drinks and food she serves up is incredibly delicious! I especially loved the 80 proof cotton candy!

I think I’m just going to sit here and soak it all in for a while as I record my thoughts in this trusty old moleskin journal.

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Okay, so it was about dusk and I was just about 50 yards away, down the street – standing on the Congress Ave Bridge to behold one of the coolest urban-natural events I've ever seen! I’d read in “Trip Advisor” that if you’re not at the “Oasis” out at Lake Travis, drinking a margarita at the end of the day, “The bats” are the #1 sunset attraction in Austin. So I Uber’d over to see what all the hub bub’s about...

There’s was a huge crowd. There must have been like 200 people hanging out here on the bridge, chatting it up with one and other and taking selfies with new friends. Everybody was jockeying for position for a great viewing spot. I looked down over the guardrail to see just as many people down below perched on a one-acre quilt of colorful blankets down below the bridge next to the Lake.

Excitement, along with a strange ammonia smell was hanging in the air which was amazingly still… I swear, moving traffic generated the only breeze that happened. I think to myself: "OMG – It’s really hot here... This better be worth it!”

I wipe my brow as it seems that everyone is checking the time with great anticipation, saying: “It won’t be long now!” I hear people telling newcomers how amazing it is to see a million and a half bats fly out from under this bridge: "It's like a streaming cloud of black smoke. Just wait, you’ll see.”

I gaze across the water’s shimmering reflection of downtown - up Congress Ave. Austin’s compact cityscape at dusk is a like a wonderfully bejeweled hodgepodge. A marvel of a non-cohesive architectural aesthetic that somehow works - like a giant box, full of colorfully wrapped Christmas presents, no doubt honoring its own spirit of individualism.

In reflections of golden glass buildings, I see a really cool pyramid outlined with electric blue horizontal neon stripes...

Then my eyes reach up Austin’s classic downtown avenue all the way the to the Capital of Texas. Wow, even the Capital weighs in on the groovy meter with a bright red neon lit dome top...

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Geez! I just love the kooky and soulful look and feel of this town!

It was getting darker and finally, my first glimpse of a bat happened when someone captured a few flickering specks when their camera’s flash went off in the dark.

Wow, that was pretty cool!

Next camera flash fired and captured quite a few more bats in stopped motion flight, then within seconds, I actually saw what looked like a stream of blackness trickling out from the underneath the bridge against a velvet indigo blue sky.

Suddenly, as though a dam broke, a spiraling black cloud flooded the darkness, darting and dodging with the deadly urgency of fully armed Sopwith Camels, that all flying insects will dread as they run for their lives until dawn.

Within about 30 minutes, the air show was over. It was now full on nighttime. I looked across at the bright glow of downtown now reflecting on the water like an illuminated candy and realized that just like the bats, Austin nightlife has just woken up.

I felt drawn to it like a moth to fire.

As I walked across the bridge, I noticed people talking about and pointing out a most interesting light sculpture on the back of the Radisson hotel building. Wow, look at that! A huge, mystically beautiful light sculpture that so elegantly captures the spirit of the bats with it's subtle expression, utilizing deep silhouette and rich washing color, reminding me of the marvelous natural phenomenon that I have just experienced.

This all makes me happy to know that this remarkable natural habitat is important enough to Austin that they feature art work like this about it..

I read about this being created by light artist, Ben Livingston, who also made that blue neon pyramid building and the neon in the capital dome. Not to mention this huge public art piece, just a couple blocks east down Cesar Chavez at the Convention Center.

http://www.publicartarchive.org/work/confabulating-orbits

Confabulating Orbits (1995)

$50,000

Seeing that neon sculpture made me realize that I wasn’t done with the bat experience. I wanted to get closer to it, but I had no idea how to get there until I got to the end of the bridge.

OMG! It’s like someone knew that all us new batophiles wanted more.

Suddenly, there was the coolest trail head, right there, between the Radisson and the bridge. It led me between its funneling walls of light towards the sculpture; close enough to study it in detail.

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When my art investigations were sated, I looked back at the trail wall that brought me there. That's when I noticed one feature of moving light in the wall amidst all the others leading me somewhere.

Being that my state of wonder was already primed by the evening, I decided to follow the light that would take me back…. It led me right to the Radisson as though it was inviting me up into its wonderful realm of hospitality past the swimming pool area right to a sign that read “Red Bat Bar and Kitchen”

Okay, I get it. And I also get that I am really hot, thirsty and hungry...

So here I am having a delicious dinner and a lovely margarita, feeling all refreshed and satisfied but anxious to see more. I think I'll check out the Bat and local history museum and gift shop in the lobby to learn more about where I am and pick up a couple cool tee shirts for my pals. Then, since I'm here anyway, what the heck, I may as well just check into the hotel, settle in, and then go explore the city on one of those rent bikes for a while. If the evening continues like this - who knows what the next great Austin story will be about!?

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New friends I made tonight. Man - People come here from all over!

Chuck Bukosky, Redondo Beach, CA

Maggie Mead, Doylestown, PA

Wong Wai, Shanghai

Bill Burroughs, Lawrence, KS

Johnny Sales, Hoboken, NJ

Lala DeBosionere, Paris

Ben Livingston - Internationally acclaimed, local iconic artist!

Here's a few pieces of his that are definitely worth keeping in mind.