'White-footed mice & red oak acorns'

The agent was bewildered to find members of the H&W editorial staff sprawled on the floor of the Alewife MBTA station. We were there, with paper and graphite pencils, to make rubbings of the animals and plants depicted in the low-relief bronze tiles set into the station’s mezzanine floor, one hundred of which had been installed in 1981 as part of the T’s Arts on the Line initiative. On each, artist Nancy Webb sculpted a species of plant or animal indigenous to the marsh-and-meadow Alewife Reservation, the largest intact wetlands in Cambridge. The image above began as a rubbing taken by Nora Delaney and Zachary Bos off one of these tiles , was thereafter scanned at high resolution, and finally rendered as shown using desktop photo-editing software.

Thanks are due to the commuters who paused in their hurry to watch the goings-on, for many stopped to chat and not one reported our odd activity to the authorities though many must have been wondering what breed of vandalism was afoot. We extend our appreciation also to Ms. Webb, who has kindly given the editors permission to publish twelve such altered rubbings in future issues of the magazine and on the journal website. Readers may enjoy learning more about her work at www.nancywebbstudio.com.

image prepared by Nora Delaney and Zachary Bos, after a tile by Nancy Webb
appearing in Hawk & Whippoorwill Volume 1, Number 2, Winter 2008