Bridges

I'm afraid of bridges in much the same way that I fear heights. I have what I  consider a very rational fear of falling. But I irrationally fear bridges because my fear is that they will suddenly collapse while I'm crossing, thereby causing me to fall. 

I hate having to drive across bridges - walking is worse - and I don't feel safe until I'm on the other side. Ensconced in a car I feel safer but still not completely free of the phobia. As a passenger, I don't fear the bridge because I'm confident that gravity doesn't have it out for my driver. Likewise, I have no problem going to the top of a tall building and looking out because my brain tells me it's completely illogical that an entire building will collapse. That said, I can't stand on a clear platform 100+ stories in the air and look down. The irrational voice in my head says that it will give out under me and I'll fall.

So why do I love bridges?  Beyond appreciating the sheer genius of engineering I think bridges are beautiful. Their symmetry and repeating patterns  catch my eye in a way that few things can. Bridges are my favorite things to photograph and while there's beauty in the full view sometimes there's a more striking image in the detail so I like to capture that too.

There's a bridge over the Kishwaukee River in Illinois that I pass under every year on a canoe trip and take dozens of pictures from different angles. There's no easy place to get out of the boat at that point so I'm at the mercy of the speed of the river. I haven't captured a masterpiece yet but just taking the pictures gives me great joy. 

So imagine my great delight a few years ago to be in Cleveland's Metropark Zoo and discovering that a portion of it sits under the rebuilt Fulton Road bridge. My kids had to drag me away because all I did was capture pictures from under the bridge.

She's a beaut! If you search the internet for this bridge you'll find there's a lot of other people obsessed with it too.

For Christmas my rather talented artist BF (of course I'm biased) reproduced this image in paint on two enormous canvases and yesterday mounted them above my fireplace, which itself is still a work in progress. 

Since I moved in 8 months ago, he'd been promising me a large painting to fill that 10-12 foot space above the mantel. He works in abstract while I prefer representational art but I was willing to expand my art horizons and, frankly, anything from his talented hands would be a gift. When I first unwrapped it I thanked him for meeting my basic criteria of large format and the color palette to match my walls. I saw it up close and assumed it was an abstract until I stepped back and recognized what it was. I absolutely lit up at that point and exclaimed 'It's my bridge!'

Maybe we're not that far apart in our art interests after all.