22. Textures I: Scrape, Squeeze, or Rub.

Floydiana has valued Floyd County’s textures metaphorically, as social fabrics. But the area has many literal ones. Many of these are agricultural: the hide of a cow, the fibers of a straw-bale, the fabric of bib-overalls…. Texture may be fundamentally tactile–i.e., perceived by nerves in the skin or tongue. The fingers easily distinguish between a steel and nylon guitar string, and the tongue knows grits from meal. 

The senses are an orchestra that directs the conductor. Even the ears can help define a texture–a phenomenon that an be explored by holding a mug fashioned by Jayn Avery: first rub a smooth part with a finger-pad, causing a squeak; then with a fingernail rub the textured lace/cloth imprint, evoking only dullness. Of course the eyes, ever vital, both reveal and infer texture by registering shape, pattern, depth, and color.

Here are photographs of animal, vegetable, and mineral textures that characterize Floyd County, Virginia. Some subjects are natural, others man-made, others both (i.e., domesticated animals).

 

water tower

Funky defunct, Floyd. Demolished May 2014.

 

Wall on Barberry 640

Wall on Barberry Rd. near Woods Gap Rd., Floyd.

 

silo

Silo of Jacksonville Center.

 

sheep April 2014

Fleeces and filaments along Bethlehem Church Rd.

 

mafic rock 480

Outcropping of mafic (likely), rich in magnesium and iron, on Stonewall Rd. (Geology by Fred First. Mafic is dark, and rich in magnesium and iron.)

 

Lineberry Bldg rocks

Facing of Lineberry Building, N. Locust St., Floyd.

 

gravestone detail

Lid of sarcophagus (top view, close-up). Cemetery adjoining Hotel Floyd.

 

Dex trucks 1 640

DEX Company, Volvo truck-lot, Industrial Park (Christiansburg Pike).

 

car hood 640

Car hood after collision with deer.

 

bricks Farmers Supply

Masonry and woodwork, Farmers’ Supply Corp.

 

Black Water siding

Siding of Notebooks/Blackwater Loft Building (100+ years old).

 

Alluvial soil and cobble in valley near Goose Creek Run.

 

Stalagmites of chestnut stump on land of Charlie and Glenda Brouwer, Akers Rd. NW. Rendered in elegiac sepia. Boot in lower right corner: for scale.

 

Sycamore (by Fred First).

Sycamore. Photo by Fred First.

 

Fur-felt hat by Teagan Dobkin, 2014.

Fur-felt hat by Teagan Dobkin. Courtesy Troika Gallery.

 

"Veiling" worn by Andrea, The Bread Basket, 2167 Webbs Mill Rd., 2014.

Mennonnite “veiling” worn by Andrea at the Bread Basket, 2167 Webbs Mill Rd., 2014.

 

Coiffure and Michelle Neukirch, 2014.

Coiffure and Michelle Neukirch, 2014.

 

Floyd County bedrock exposed and eroded by the Little River, decorated by leaves millions of years younger.

Floyd County bedrock over Little River—many-millioned, river-wrinkled.

Logs of Tomkins cabin discovered inside Bell house, 173 Weddle Ln. SE, Floyd. Adze marks dent chestnut wood (pre-blight and pre-worm).

 

Sowers Mill dam (Sowers Mill Dam Rd. NE), itself ground by time.