Week 3.6 Part 2 - Texan Characters

I drove passed the Dallas City Hall and Pioneer Plaza on my way to West Village (ie. the equivalent of Melbourne's Chapel Street/South Yarra area).

The Dallas City Hall building was the work of famous architect I. M. Pei. It was shaped like an inverted triangle and the front face of the building appeared almost to be at 45 degree with the ground. There was a nice water feature in front of the building with 2 red spherical sculptures floating and drifting around in the hot afternoon breeze, adding a splash of colour to the area.

1. Dallas City Hall
2. Structure near City Hall
3. Reflection of a City


Right near the City Hall was the Pioneer Plaza. Here I found the largest bronze monument in the world, depicting cowboys on horseback driving 40 longhorns along what was the Shawnee Trail - the first trail where cattles were driven from Texas to Missouri. The details of the longhorns and facial expressions of the cowboys were amazing. I would have loved to stay out there and looked more closely, but it was an open space and I was beginning to melt.

1. Longhorn Drive
2. Lonesome cowboy


Anyway, so I was hopping around from one shady spot to another (they were hard to find) and I eventually came to the top of the plaza where shades were in abundance. That's where I met Dallas local, Quinn. He was chillin' out with his music and I was chillin' with my camera. He saw me and we nodded at each other. Then he proceeded to ask me THE question:

"Hey you wanna take a picture of me?"

I told you - people like their pictures taken here. So ok, I took one. Then I thought oh maybe he can take one for me? Hmm... but can I trust him with my camera? Anyway, it ended up with me taking another picture of him in front of the cowboy statue. You probably won't be able to see it from the picture but he had 4 gold front teeth. Very impressive.

1. Bank of America Plaza in the background
2.Silly photo time (had no tripod so legs got chopped off... *sigh*)
3.Meet Texas Local, Quinn


I said goodbye to Quinn, who proceeded back to his shady spot under the trees with his music. I headed back towards the car. Then I noticed this gentleman sitting out in the sun looking at a plaque and I decided to investigate.

Remember that trick that you learned in science class? If the sun was out and you held a magnifying glass up, sunlight would converge at the focal point and produce a single point source of heat and some of us might have even tried it on a line of ants or other little innocent insects on the ground in a hot summer day... (not me personally but hey guys, don't tell me you haven't thought of it).

WELL - this gentleman was actually harnessing this energy to perfection artistically. He was actually burning patterns onto a wooden plaque by moving around a piece of magnifying glass!! I TOLD you Dallas was hot. Now I have proof of it.

1. Artist at work
2. Look at that smoke coming off the wood
3. Close up