3The Lamp of the Body
“Lamp of the Body” painted by Joe Rooster in 2002 · a giant blue eye ringed in paisley on a low free-standing wall at 1101 Washington Ave · signed on the wall @heyJoeRooster and @Dom_wtxMURAL
A blue eye the length of a car, ringed in paisley, on a low wall with a Gothic church rising behind it.
The title tells you what to do with it. The lamp of the body is the eye — and Joe Rooster put that eye on a low free-standing wall at 1101 Washington Avenue in 2002, blue iris, black pupil, a run of white dots along the lid, and around the whole thing a ring of teardrop paisley shapes in teal, purple, pink, coral and cream.
What makes it land is the siting. The wall is low and the red brick Gothic church behind it is not, so from the sidewalk the eye sits at chest height with the church stacked directly above it. You get the verse and the building in one frame without the painter having to say a word about it.
The wall is signed twice, on a small blue panel at the end: @heyJoeRooster and @Dom_wtx. Two hands, then, and both of them wanted you to be able to find them.
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