chairs

It’s not that I dislike winter, it’s just that I like spring and summer so much more. Is there a person who doesn’t prefer the first daffodil to the second, third, fourth blast of arctic air?

It was a cold day today. But, I had a few minutes between classes and Thursday is cheap latte day at the UBS coffee counter off Library Mall and so I pushed myself out the door for the walk down the hill.

And I’m glad that I did. I was flooded with kind feelings toward the sunshine and the crisp air and I thought – this isn’t bad (even as I know that spring is better).

And I wanted to extend my walk a little further, with a detour to the lake. That was cool (in all meanings encapsulated therein). This year the Union Terrace chairs are put away for the winter season, but if you want chairs, you’ll find some, because the artist (and MFA candidate at UW) Hongtao Zhou has created for us chairs, out of the waters of Lake Mendota.





They look like they’re the grandfolk of chairs – lived through storms and still here to tell us about it. The artist began the project just last week (you need a good dose of cold before you can reap the waters from the lake, mix them with snow and mold anything durable out of it all), before the storm. To me, they look all the more majestic, if a bit frazzled.





I thought of sitting in one and then decided against it. Enough to have had this solo moment with them, out on the lake, just me and a bunch of icy chairs.