Hello ^-^ I'm wondering what you all think of the public art in Ann Arbor- or in general. Like "Bubble Gum Alley" ( The alley way next to the State theatre), all the train murals- grafitti even. which ones do you like best? Why?30 responses total.
I like Montreal best.
I like the alley next to the State. But I know the artist, so I may be biased.
MONTREAL. You can read about Montreal at: http://www.livejournal.com/users/zionicman
I like the whales on Tios, Starry Night on the mattress place on West Stadium (I think that's where it is; somewhere on West Stadium near Maple, any way), and the one next to Potbelly Sandwiches on Liberty. Of course, those are also the ones I see most often.
It's nice that Ann Arbor has public art that's not "art by committee." Here's what we've got in Berkeley: http://63.249.162.244/blog/4900/sf/DSCF8840.jpg
A tuning fork?
For a *very* low note, I'd guess.
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*chop*
*chop*
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I like the sculpture in Hanover Square. I like the bas-reliefs on the county courthouse, and on the LS&A Building. I'm not that fond of the sculpture on the brick plaza at Fourth Avenue and Catherine, but I'm glad it's there. Grafitti: Generally, I don't approve, but there are exceptions. I really liked seeing "LIONEL" painted on the old Ann Arbor railroad viadicts on the west edge of downtown, and some of the creative painting seen on railroad viaducts more recently. I also enjoyed the (now long gone) hot-pink advice "DEFINE YOURSELF OR BE DEFINED" which used to be in giant letters across the Warren Road overpass on US-23 north of town. I have always liked the huge painted author heads on the south side of Liberty at the corner of State, but they may already be gone by this writing. Had I the property and the money to spare, I would have installed a life-size concrete stegosaurus (head toward downtown) on the spacious lawn on Jackson Road at the corner of Kenwood, a block past the point where W. Huron splits into Dexter and Jackson. At the old Arborland, I always stopped to admire the colored-brick mosaic work (vertical mural, 7.5 feet wide, 40 feet tall) which was on the west wall of the west hallway. It showed a tree or vine and various figures and animals among its branches. There was also a harp with the harp strings done as darkened mortar joints! When the building was about to be torn down, I persuaded Marianne Rzepka of the Ann Arbor News to write a story about it -- the article appeared on the front page. Several people wrote or called to explain that the mural was an illustration of the Jack and the Beanstalk story. Numerous ideas were suggested for saving the mural, including putting it in the new Ypsilanti library or a downtown Ann Arbor parking structure. In the end, local builder Joe O'Neal came up with the people and expertise to actually remove it from the building before demolition. It has been in storage for several years since then, but O'Neal says he plans to reinstall it at Kerrytown soon.
re 6 and 7:
The Berkeley tuning fork is supposed to vibrate at "the frequency of
the earth." Since there's a BART (subway) station underneath it, the earth
there vibrates frequently, but I don't think that's really what they had in
mind.
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Re #12: Maybe someone should watch it during the next earthquake? A few years ago I noticed a large amount of Christian graffiti appearing. Mostly "TRUST JESUS" on overpass columns. This always got me to wondering about the morality of that kind of thing. Do you have to hope enough people are converted by the message to make up for the sin of defacing state property? There used to be a string of overpasses on US-27 (now US-127) that had graffiti that said, "I LOVE YOU DAR", "I NEED YOU DAR", etc. I wonder if she was impressed? My favorite was the one I saw once that said, "HAS ANYONE SEEN MY SNUGGLEBUNNY?"
The natural frequencies (of at least the lowest harmonics) of the earth are *much* lower than that of that "tuning fork": it will miss the main messages and catch only the screams of pain.
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i enjoyed the human feces fingerpainting on the side of the laundrymat, until some anti-art person washed it off after a few months.
I like the stencil art the most- the random stencils of bands or people. I'm not entirely sure why. I'm very fond of the stencils of Victor everywhere. If you go up to the train tracks by the Big City Cafe' there are some very cool stencils of pills and matches.
my favorite stencil art was the old van parked next to acute services house that had at least a hundred stencils of moe howard's head on it.
resp:10 Heh. What's their slogan again, "Have an erotic day"?
hey tod, isn't the lusty lady the one where the dancers unionized?
Re #11: I hadn't heard the mural had been preserved. Joe O'Neal is one of my favorite Ann Arborites, though I'm only vaguely acquainted with him. My parent's house was the second building his company ever built and they kept in touch with him for years. I remember him giving us a tour of the Power Center while it was under construction.
One of the most amazing pieces of art in Ann Arbor is the Maya Lin sculpture. It is in a public courtyard on North Campus, between the Francois Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) building and the Engineering Programs Building (EPB) near the corner of Hubbard and Beal. Walk east on Hubbard from Beal, and turn south at the end of the building. The sculpture is called "Wave Field", and it is a 3D representation of sine waves. Takes up about 20 x 20 sq feet in the courtyard.
It's cool, but rather hard to find.
I'll have to try to find it. Maybe someone should post GPS coordinates. ;>
I hadn't recognised them as sine waves.
That's because the grass obscures the purity of the curves.
I seem to remember hearing somewhere about a contest to design a lawn mower that could mow that area somewhat efficiently. I've never seen it, though.
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Do Dexter or Saline have public art?
You have several choices: