James Paige

Current mood: Crisp

I was in my art class yesterday, and while waiting for my sculpture to dry a little bit, I wandered across the hall into the painting class. I enjoy looking over artist’s shoulders while they work. In the middle of the room one woman was working on a painting of a freeway interchange. She was painting it in bright pastel colors. I remember a smurf-blue overpass across the top right of the canvas. The shapes were a little stylized, but I immediately recognized it.

“The 110 – 105 interchange, right?” I asked.

She finished her brush stroke, and then glanced at me and smiled. “Yes” she said.

For those of you who don’t live in the area, the 110 Freeway runs north and south, from Pasadena to San Pedro, passing close on the west side of downtown Los Angeles. The 105 freeway run east and west, terminating on the west end at the LAX airport.

This picture does not really do it justice, this is just the best I could find on Google Images. To really experience the beauty of this concrete monument to transportation, you must be closer to it, under it, looking up at it all around you. I have always felt that it looks best from the southbound side.

I imagine that 1000 years from now, post apocalyptic historians will look at the 110/105 interchange and wonder who built this towering temple, and what deities it honors.

Those of us who live today know perfectly well that nothing appeases these particular gods better than a sacrifice of fresh gasoline.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 20th, 2005 at 12:21 pm and is filed under rambling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.