Woods & Stairs

“Woods & Stairs” was taken during a Thanksgiving visit to Newport, RI where I found myself exploring the extensive and extensively graffitied internals and externals of Fort Wetherill in nearby Jamestown with my sister, Diane.

The picture backgrounding this page is another shot from the same outing, part of our years-long urban spelunking habit – especially following sleep-inducing holiday meals.

This place was once a strategically located artillery fort and is now a state park. The abandoned fort is popular with hikers, urban spelunkers, photographers and the like.

There are some real stunners, thanks to the graffiti artists who’ve contributed here over years…and not only do artists invade this place, the plants do, too…

…but I’m not sure who will have the last laugh, the artists or the plants…

Walking around the Fort, I saw many interesting pieces of art, including this one…is it a stylized, graffiti-esque salamander with a message?

…or is it a girl, with a message in her hair?

I came upon graffitied chambers with small escape hatches…

…and sometimes, I walked through darkness…but, there was always a light at the end of the tunnel…

…and when you get to that light, you look back and you realize there was also light in the tunnel:

In any case, there are more than a few decorated doorways to pass through here…

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Enjoy,

Alison