Vertigo

One of the things I love about my town is the hills. I like that there is geography here, but I especially like that the hills are populated with quirky three-decker houses crammed into them. When I walk around I am never bored by the myriad things to look at; plastic yard furniture and brightly-colored kid's toys, the remnants of summer days; stuck and torn screens and jammed storm windows; the newly-hung X-mas lights in windows and porches; you name it. Standing on top of the cemetery hill this morning, and looking out at the town and the sky, gave me the sensation of flying. I felt like Peter Pan.

Now that the trees are bare I can see all of the little city lights when it's night-time, which accentuates the feeling of flying just from looking around. Years ago I had a poster in my studio that gave me vertigo whenever I looked at it. It was a Soviet commercial-design poster from the twenties; a woman in a dance pose had type swirling around her and a background which was a view looking up at skyscrapers. Even when I look at computer-screen animation I get vertigo! So I am pretty entertained standing on top of the hill in the cemetery imagining I am Peter Pan flying through downtown.