I may be obsessed, but these things just seem to find me. Driving through downtown Nashville yesterday, in a funky little section called the Melrose District, I passed a sign that truly seemed to scream at me. (Pic #1 and Pic #4) It had clearly seen better days, or maybe years, but its wear-and-tear left a gorgeous abstraction of rich browns, blacks, and  grey smudges.

I belted out a loud “STOP!” to my friend Susan, and bless her loyal soul — she hit the brakes. She didn’t understand why, but she knew I was on a mission. I bolted out of the car and grabbed the shot. She and her colleagues Sherri and Poonam might have been bumfuzzled, but were very polite about it.

I saw what could have been an acrylic abstract landscape  — a really interesting composition. (Pic #1)

It reminded me of the work of the late Spanish painter Antoni Tapies, (Pic #2) and the iconic American abstract expressionist, Helen Frankenthaler (Pic #3).

But the artist, in this case — was nature. Who knows how many rainstorms or snowfalls ravaged the roadside ad, and how many layers of paper and ink were left in their wake. I just like the idea that the elements become artists too, and we benefit from  their unpredictable, repetitive action.