I almost forgot about the Farmers' Market yesterday — but then I remembered at about 4:30 when I was on my bike en route to Rejects' Beach for a quick dip on such a hot & sticky afternoon. Much talk throughout the day, and at the Farmers' Market, was about the impending storm: Earl. I made sure to buy enough tomatoes and mozzarella ('tis the season) to get us through ...
But, honestly, I shouldn't joke. Nor should I joke about the scene at Rejects', at the corner of Bellevue and Ocean Drive, where I ran into a friend whose artwork is currently being shown at Arnold Art. The name of the newest collection by Bill Heydt is Nudeportant; and, no joke, these nudes are important. Special. (Yes, I'm a friend, so perhaps I'm biased, but they are.) Just as Bill's other widely-recognized portrait collection — Newportant People — is special. Somehow, Bill uses layered photographic images as the foundation for his kaleidoscopic (if that's a word) and uniquely-textured (if that's possible) watercolors.
But back to the beach: I never did go swimming, as the water was, well, uniquely textured. It was full of jellyfish; they were everywhere. Another woman I see at Rejects' frequently said these little jellies (are they eggs?? babies?? mating adults?? victims washing up before the storm??) show up every year at about this time, but she'd never seen them so dense as they were yesterday. I assumed if I waded out far enough, I'd get through it. Or them, to be accurate. But no. It was like wading in bits of jello. Or warm ice cubes?? I could feel them bumping up & brushing past my legs with each step ... step after step after step ... with no end in sight.
It was almost pretty, I'll admit, the way those jellies sparkled in the late-day sunshine. Almost pretty. But I just couldn't get past the texture ...
The terms "Newportant" and "Nudeportant" were dreamed up by Bill and his friend (a Newportant person in his own right): Dr. Love. No joke.
