Visitor's Day

Friday, Dec 21, 2007


It’s been early to rise all week and the day still seems to end so quickly. When you blink and it’s supper time, you understand just how short life is, how it’s going right by in this furious, rushing flash. Your shoulder is leaning towards the wind, you’re on top of things, but even as the thought occurs to you, your time awake has already evaporated.


Somehow I ended up in the car with Patrick Pyszka, Official Photographer for the City of Chicago for Museum of Modern Ice. (If there ever were such a title). I thought I was calling Nathan for a ride to The Fulton, and a relaxed, slightly startled voice answered in true Improv form: sure he could pick me up, where am I ? There’s a warm fuzzy around Patrick and inside his little blue car, (a light rain on the windshield), it seemed that we could become fast friends. He’s just a youngster, but he has a way of making you feel comfortable, like there is an adventure just around the corner and you and he are in on its secret.


Here he is, casual with the fork lifts roaring around behind him, as we try to get an escort across the firing line of The Fulton.

The crew had taken a break to the warm room as Patrick Pyszka and I trudged up the famous red barn stairs around the raggedy corners and into our workshop space.


I was still seeing little art pieces on the walls; the textures and colors and historic nature of every inch of the place; I can’t keep my hands off my camera as my brain goes into overdrive trying to describe what I see. But he controlled himself; he was here on a mission to capture today’s work in still photography which will be uploaded onto the City of Chicago website.


Of course the guys had worked ferociously into the evening the day before, had pulled off a few pours just this morning, and the magnificent red paintings had already been stacked against the walls. As Ari would say, “It’s pretty in there.”


Gord loves an audience; he can’t resist peeling himself away from the task at hand when he has a new person to show and tell. He’s fascinated with the ice crystals, excited about the constantly changing process which is full of discovery and innovation.


Then Patrick Pyszka drove me on a concise tour of the River North galleries and told me he’s going to Kansas for the holidays. Next week, then, he'll be back, at a manageable pace we can all live with.



In the afternoon, Nathan brought Karen Ryan, Christine Carrino and Kimberley Costello from the City with an armload of posters and brochures for Museum of Modern Ice. Of course they had heard about the growing legend of The Fulton Market, and they had to see what needed to be considered for camera crews and reporters.


We went to the office for badges, then had to dodge and duck across the loading dock to the red stairs, waving at the fork lift drivers as we passed.


Gord had just spent a long conversation on the phone with Jeff from North Shore Magazine, but he took himself away from the work again. Here they are around today’s surprise: turquoise.