Ever since I read that marvel howto on doing comics digitally, I've been collecting architectural details to put into the graphic novel I want to draw some day. As it happens downtown Grand Rapids, which is located on the western side of Michigan's lower peninsula, is full of wonderful limestone carvings and ceramic tiles (which were made as cheaper versions of the same thing—but still magnificent. And now that we have all this high strength concrete, I want this sort of thing to come baaaaaaack!)

I'm all about that over-the-top Victorian love of surface decoration. Those jokers who claimed that buildings should be brutalist and stripped of their ‘useless’ decorations—lovely, lovely textures shown off by raking sunlight—did american architecture no favor, in my opinion.

My camera doesn't do GPS, so all I can say is I took this image somewhere in downtown Grand Rapids—possibly on Monroe street.

Ok, with all those leaves coming off his beard, mebbe he was one of those old man oakey things, especially as the meander specifically has an oakleaf worked into the design. And I s'pose the ‘shell’ above is an acanthus leaf. But, regardless of whether this guy is Neptune or some sort of green man, this is just so cool. Why can't modern public buildings have these handsome ornaments?

photo taken 25aug10. Post 26aug.

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.