Shadows on the City Sidewalks

A MEDITATION ON URBAN ART-BY-SUNLIGHT

Occasionally, when not looking at interesting architecture on city walks  — college classes taught me to look above ground level — or admiring the clouds, I like to look down in search of urban art underfoot. To take time, sometimes, studying what the sun is doing. The sun is often busy making art. Renaissance. Abstract. Art Deco. With the help of street trees, leafy designs splash across sidewalks and stretch upward to green shrubbery. The result is an invitation to slow down, wonder and appreciate.

The opening invitation might come in the form of a mixed-media design, such as this assemblage of line, texture, color and imagery — despite the green being only overhead and out of the frame. Random chalk-mark additions are not infrequent. Including advice messages:

When meditating on urban art, one has to practice dismissal of interruptions along the way.

But back to the sunlight and shadow. The light plays on sidewalk shrubbery, creating green-leaf foreground for an artwork of patterned shadow background. In hindsight, the work could have done without the intrusion of that cellphone image at the bottom edge, but we try not to overthink things. 

Even when confronted with the challenge of downtown business districts the sun often finds a way. These are the times when walking meditation goes in different directions: skyscraper dreams. Are any of my fellow humans noticing the sidewalk shadow-painting at their feet? Can the introduction of steel and concrete have something artistic to say for itself? Urban architects hope so. 

Welcome to Urban Art Appreciation 101. We’re all in this together.