This series has developed with a hope to invite closer viewer inspection and appreciaton. We observe and judge quickly. We don't always take the time to absorb and evaluate. Often details and qualities are missed and opinions and conclusions reached with insufficient and faulty information.

In the 1970s I had a studio in a desperately depressed Smith Hill section of Providence, RI close to the state's capitol building. I occupied a second floor in one of the neighborhood's "three-deckers" which were spaced too closely together. The house next door appeared abondoned but was actually inhabited by a rare book dealer. Back then he was considered eccentric. Today he's be labeled a hoarder and the health department would have been called in. As I got to know him I found out he was born and raised in the house and had been there for over 60 years. His father had been a tailor. He was highly educated as well as being an accomplished machinist. He had a brother who commuted daily from Attleboro, MA. They would vanish into the cellar where they had developed specialized methods to machine tungsten and boron carbide components for NASA as well as nuclear technology research. These cutting edge high tech components were fabricated on antique lathes which seem to have rooted in a dark fieldstone-lined pit of a cellar with standing water and abundant cobwebs. It was a great example of not judging by first impressions—discovering an incredibly complex and rich environment with the investment of a little time and patience.