Statue: Male/Female

Here's another Jonathan Borofsky statue titled "Male/Female" outside of Penn Station, Baltimore, MD. I saw this statue for the first time about a year ago. I had know idea who made it, but thought it was pretty interesting. When writing the last post, I checked out Borofsky's website and saw this one listed.

It's a pretty interesting location for such a contemporary statue. I think it fits though. After all we're contemporary people moving through spaces that have been around for ages. Also being outside of Penn Station (a train station) it really reflects (no pun intended) the coming and going of men and women through this space every day. Similarly, the Hammering Man is creating... making something... and he's located outside the art museum. What do they say in real estate? "Location! Location! Location!" I think I like these everyman statues after all.

Statue: Hammering Man

This is the statue "Hammering Man" by Jonathan Borofsky. It's dated 1992 and made of painted steel. It is 48 feet high. It's located on the southwest corner of the Seattle Art Museum.

It's iconic to downtown Seattle and more can be read on the Seattle Art Musuem's website. I like the determination and routine this statue represents to me. I like how the finish is fading to a soft black. Interesting juxtaposition of this statue of an industrial worker made of steel in a town of knowledge-based workers.

Location: 1st Avenue, Seattle (by Seattle Art Museum)

Statue: Orpheus

This is a statue of Orpheus at Fort McHenry in Baltimore. The placard for this statue reads:

" The heroic bronze figure in front of you is not, as many suppose, a likeness of Francis Scott Key. The statue represents Orpheus, the artful poet, musician, and singer of Greek Mythology.


" In 1914 Congress appropriated funds for a monument at Fort McHenry to mark the centennial of the writing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and the defense of Baltimore. Orpheus with the Awkward Foot, the creation of sculptor Charles H. Niehaus, was selected from thirty four designs submitted in a national competition.

"Orpheus is depicted playing a lyre, and stands twenty-four feet from head to toe.

"The marble base bears a medallion honoring Francis Scott Key, flanked by a procession of allegorical figures. The pedestal contains a time capsule filled with documents of patriotic and historical interest. In 1962 the statue was moved here from its original site near the fort's principal entrance."

This is a beautiful statue and if you're at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, MD you should check it out.

Location: Fort McHenry, Baltimore MD

Installation: Tacky

Okay. I don't know who first invented these inflatable, seasonal decorations... or why. But apparently they are taking over the world. Who said that the movie "The Blob" was a Science Fiction movie?


This is an installation I came across back East, oustide of Baltimore, MD. However, I have seen many of these installations in Seattle too. And, I am sure they can be found, during any prominent holiday, all over the country. However, I am particularly fond of this one. While I think Martha Stewart would be gnashing her teeth and muttering curses, I was stupefied by this display. The sheer magnitude. Whoever did this was HAVING A LOT OF FUN ... (and is a little bit off, if you know what I'm saying)!

But, folks, can we try something a little more original next year? What ever happened to dry ice and plastering your arms to make zombie hands coming up out of fresh graves? Is our world too politically correct that we have to decorate with these innocuous, inflatable, cartoons? And think about the environment people! How much energy are we wasting keeping these things inflated and lit up? Really!


Location: At a family restaurant in suburb of Baltimore, Maryland

Mural: Poster Graffiti

The wall across from the Bubble Gum Wall in Post alley is covered with poster graffiti. I especially like the current exhibit. It's all about repitition and scale. Really great.

Location: Seattle, Post Alley (under Pike's Place Market)

Typography: The Lusty Lady

This post will surely get a lot of hits by those searching for something other than a blog about public art. And, it will probably annoy, upset, or amuse people. Whatever. I don't want to hear about your thoughts on strip clubs, exploitation of women, etc. Go find another blog to talk about that.

This isn't about the art going on inside (and yes they have erotic photography and art shows in their lobby). This post is about the marquee itself. I love it! An old school kind of marquee with some of the cleverest phrases I've seen in advertising. They are playful and irreverent. And they change pretty frequently. They are always about something very culturally topical. When the Seattle Art Museum (located across the street) opened their show of Roman Art from the Louvre, the phrase was "Julius Sees Her".

I also like the lettering of their logo. A great script typeface. Perhaps that "u" could be just a bit closer to the first "L", but otherwise great motion, approachable, and playful. Love the Art Deco letters with which they write their taglines. Read more about the Lusty Lady on Wikipedia.

Location: 1st Avenue, Seattle (across from the Seattle Art Museum)

Sculpture: Belltown Lights

I first saw these light posts returning from getting my afternoon fix of Skee-Ball at the Seattle Center. Walking to catch the bus and carrying two medium-sized, stuffed animals (bright green frogs). My prizes for $3 worth of Skee-Ball. (It's the only sport at which I truly excel).

It was a nice night and...then...I saw this across the street.... and hated it. It looks unfinished; like someone had some extra metal bars laying around a construction site and decided to bamboozle the city with some "public art". Constructionist Art. Perhaps they're not finished....

Then, I thought about what I was looking at a bit more.... and I kinda started to like it. It's actually perfect for Seattle, which has seen so much downtown construction over the past few years. It seems everywhere you go someone's building something. I also thought, these light posts kinda poke fun at this in a tounge-and-cheek sorta way. This is probably not what the artist had in mind; but, it's what I see and this is my blog (ha ha).

The artist is Kurt Kiefer and they are dated 1996. Apparently, these are supposed to "reference the process of removing Denny Hill (the "Regrade," which took place in the early 1900s)." I guess the artist did a pretty good job communicating his ideas, because if I "got it", then.... I also read that, the "light fixture brackets with neon clocks, refer to construction scaffolding and bracing used during the dismantling of Denny Hill." *Read on the Seattle.gov website.

Funny, I didn't connect them with the first round of major construction this city went through. But maybe these speak of the continual change a city under goes through construction.

Most of these don't have clocks attached to them. That's why I like this one the best. I like the balance. Plus, I think more light posts should have clocks... especially light posts near a bus stop. That would not only be decorative, but also functional. Here's a picture of another light post in a more appropriate environment.


I wonder what people will think of these lights in 5 years.

Location: 2nd Avenue in Seattle's Belltown Neighborhood

Sculpture: Nose Bench

You take the left nostril, I'll take the right and when we catch our breath, we'll continue up the hill. This is a bench, half-way up the hill from Pike's Place Market to 1st Avenue. Made of metal, tractor seats and paint. To me, it looks like a nose. I like the elegant line that makes up the bridge of the nose. The tractor seats are comfy! (As tractor seats are likely to be.) And the seats fit in nicely with the whole Farmer's Market thing.

Try them out. It's a long steep hill and after you eat your way through the market (like I usually do) you'll need a little breather.
Location: Pike's Place, Seattle

Mural: Keeping Watch

I walk around a lot. I've always felt that's the best way to see and learn about a place. Too much is missed by riding around in a car. This is a mural that is probably not seen by many, which made it extra fun to find. And made me wonder... was this commissioned (free or otherwise) or is it graffiti? It can be found under the 1st Avenue on-ramp to Highway 99. Those who walk from the ferry terminals, up the stairs to 1st are lucky to have something to divert their attention. Hopefully, they notice it.

It also makes me wonder if these giants are sitting in their living room, watching out their window at what happens in this loading dock/parking lot/ dead-end street. Or is it the windshield of a great cement car we're looking into?

I love the colors and the geometry of this mural. The expressions on the faces made with lines. What's the distance between the two figures say? Makes me think this is view is routine to them.

I also like how the grime from the cement and road above has run down the face of the mural and added a bit of organic paint. Kinda like it is a windshield.

Location: Under the 1st Ave on-ramp to 99. Seneca and Post St.

Mural: Crane Shadows

So... Late one afternoon, I'm meeting a group of people, that I don't know all that well, at a Starbucks on 1st Avenue South in Seattle. I'm a bit distracted... nervous about the meeting, tired from working on a bunch of freelance projects, worried about how little money I'm making, etc....

I park my car in the back lot, and walk to the 1st Ave entrance and I look over at the building across the street. At first, I thought these were just shadows from the Port cranes on this building. But then I realize that a) The cranes are across Highway 99, several hundred yards behind the building and b) there is no way these are shadows. Then I noticed the front of the building.


The simplicity in the use of solid fields of black, the highly graphical nature, the relationship to it's environment all make this a must see mural. It's hard to tell where reality becomes fiction. Viewing it from the right angle creates a seamless sight-line from the cranes in the distance to the shadows painted on the building. It's bold and intriguing.

I have to do a bit more research and learn whose behind this awesome mural. A sign on the front door advertises artists lofts.

Location: 1900 block of 1st Avenue South. SODO district of Seattle.

Bubbling Artists

I think this wall best represents why I decided to start blogging about public art.

From a distance, you may notice the texture. You might notice that something is awry. You can choose to ignore it, or start to look at it closer. If you do, you'll start to notice a space transformed...purposely. You might notice that people have taken a material and used it as a means of self-expression and of collective expression.

From a distance, I look at public art and wonder how to recognize/define it. Is it Free? Or commissioned and paid for? Accessible to large amounts of the public? Outside of an art museum or gallery; or part of? How does it transform and relate to it's surroundings? What does it communicate? What do I like about... what don't I like?


Looking closer at the wall, I notice it's components. This start to become visible. This is the infamous Bubble Gum Wall in Seattle's Post Alley.

I've lived in Seattle for almost 12 years now, and have heard of the wall--but, never visited. This is another goal of this blog - to explore ; find things in obvious places, hidden locations and everything in between. I want to stretch my idea of public art (and as cliched as it is, art itself). I like this wall, because it repulses and fascinates me at the same time. It is both personal and collective. From a distance, it's about texture and what that can communicate.

Up close, you see typography, abstract painting (is that Van Gogh's ear?), and mini sculptures and collages. You are reminded that people have put the material with which they create, in their mouth (one of the filthiest parts of our bodies) and mixed it with their saliva, making it pliable, to communicate something. Communicating, consciously or not, to themselves and to others. This wall started with boredom and rebellion of waiting in line, and grew into a collective participation.

I also want to share what I find and hear what others think about the subject posted. I won't like everything. You won't like everything. This isn't academic, the writing won't be brilliant. This is meant to be fun and interesting. I hope you'll find it so.

And check out the Bubble Gum Wall in the north end of Post Alley, underneath Pike's Place Market. It's...

Location: Post Alley, Seattle

Welcome

Hello! This is a new site dedicated to public art. More to come soon