terriloui

I am fascinated by unintentional art. Those cropped, unexpected glimpses that give you pause, a random vignette on a friend’s bookshelf or stopping to view a brilliant canvas of colors under your feet.

Beta Bridge on Rugby Road, in Charlottesville October 2013

I thought I was being clever in coining that phrase, “unintentional art” but no. A quick internet search reminds me that everything that one could possibly conceive, or wish to see or must know, already exists — the photos and descriptions are online to prove that someone else documented it first. Except a video of perspiration forming which does not exist. I check, regularly. So, anyone who cares about this hole in the internet, please grab a video recording device and meet me at the hot yoga studio, because there is no time lapse video, anywhere, of beads of sweat at the exact moment they appear on skin. And I really want to see this.

But I digress.

Back to art and Beta Bridge. I have very few connections to the University of Virginia. I do know that the campus is not a campus, instead it is called grounds. Recently, I was approaching grounds walking amongst the students, who I still like to call coeds, a phrase that dates me. The coeds had their heads aimed down at their smart phones as we all walked along Rugby Road toward the Rotunda. I had my smart phone in my bag and my eyes up so as not to trip, because this is how adults walk, with eyes ahead. Until I got to Beta Bridge and saw the colors. Eyes down. The random splatterings of house paint on the surface of the old bridge sidewalk stopped me short and I conjured drop cloths and Jackson Pollock, while the coeds walked on or stopped to catch the bus. The photos below, indicate but a little of what I encountered over the course of 3 weeks in October, as I found myself regularly walking to and fro Beta Bridge.

The constant bridge painting and repainting by the coeds isn’t new, it’s been documented since 1967 and is one of the UVA traditions that ages well, unlike Easters, now extinct or the fourth year fifth, which should be. Some local folk, a coed, maybe grad student or staffer perhaps, similarly enamored by regular walks created Beta Bridge (almost) Daily. This site documents the near daily transformation, with long, wide and wonderful shots of the solid walls, giving insight into the billboard-like, real-time phrases of the day.

I love the worn patina and myriad layers and feeling that the whole structure may well be tenuously held together and reliant on a fresh coat of paint, probably being applied right now.

Live.