Red Chairs
It is snowing in Chicago. By the time morning rolls around nearly a foot of snow will be deposited on the ground. I decided I needed to revisit images of warmer days. As I wandered through my photographs I was drawn to this one. The red stadium seats on a warm Summer day, seats that by morning will not be recognizable, simply jumped off the page at me.
Baseball, apple pie, and hot dogs are all implied by these red stadium seats. The smell of cold beer and peanuts in the shell waft from these chairs. I can hear the crack of the bat, the pop of the catcher’s glove as the ball strikes the mitt, the roar of the crowd as a fly ball clears the ivy covered walls–a home run. All this and more is evoked in this image.
In Kansas City these very seats were mistaken for chairs at Arrowhead Stadium. The rich red of the chairs reminded my guest of a Chief’s game when no one came. Another person decided that these chairs were in Cincinnati while others insisted that they were located in Atlanta, Boston, and Arizona. In fact, they are located in Chicago, my home town. So, while not really Wrigley Field, these chairs make me think about baseball. These thoughts keep me warm on this cold, stormy Winter night.
