Ornament spotting started on my daily train commute from rogers park into the loop • a direct slice through the architectural stratigraphy of chicago neighborhoods • a core sample • after a couple decades of watching it go by on the way to the planetarium • i got to know it pretty well • very well • graffiti came and went as generations of taggers scaled the backs of every building possible to exhibit their glyphs • the chicago graffiti eraser bureau duly came along and sprayed over it with industrial brown paint • then it would start over again • all up and down the line • but the buildings themselves told a different story • after the chicago fire • builders began to use brick and stone instead of wood • architects decorated the exteriors with ornamental facades • encrusting them with mythical presence • mute eyes looking at us from above • mies van der rohe put an end to all that gothic embrace but it’s still around if you look for it in the neighborhoods of chicago • for several years i became obsessed with finding it • discovering stone ghosts hiding in plain sight • around doorways • windows • roof tops • i would employ some of the same means used by the taggers to capture a high wire shot • as much of ornamental expression is on the tops of buildings • there are many books on architectural ornament through the ages • this isn’t about definitions • it is about discovery • a survey of what i found on my ornament dig • chicago is particularly rich in samples.