Alley View #2

This space has been a hardware store since the building was built in the 1880s. Since the late 40s or early 50s it has been Kirk's Hardware. No one named Kirk has owned it in my memory.

The front door to the hardware has a great 1940s streamlined look...a green aluminum awning, enameled green stand-up letters. Inside it looks and feels like it must have from the beginning...wood floors, thousands of tiny labeled drawers, rolling ladders to reach stock near the ceiling. The smell is of something buried deep in my memory.

There are even some remnants of the stores early days in the stock on the shelves. Archaic farm tools, horse bridles, oil lamps and kerosene cans line the high shelves.

Locals use the back door. It feels "wrong" to the uninitiated. You step from the morning sunshine to the the immediate darkness of the back room and Bill's cluttered repair shop. Bill Prather, the current keeper of this tradition, is usually at his bench working on screens and glazing (They are the only shop around that stil offers these services).

I also draw and paint. I am drawn to capturing the mysteries of doors and windows. The multiple planes of glass, screen, curtains, shades and reflected images fascinate me. The well defined shadows and subtle shading reveal a hint of the secrets to be found inside.