Sculptures on my lunch break

I often take a walk around downtown during my lunch break. I have a only thirty minutes (and they are very strict about it) so I have to figure out places where I can go and still get back in time. I often go to Barnes and Noble (yay books!) but that can be dangerous to my wallet. Another frequent destination is the Central Library bookstore (yay MORE books!) which is slightly less dangerous. The other day I decided to travel a little further out so that I could share some photos of one of my very favorite sculptures/parks downtown.

Here is a photo of Minneapolis City Hall. I like it because it looks like a castle or chateau of some kind. I've often thought it would be cool to live here if the apocalypse ever comes. But then I think about having to defend all of those windows. Hmmm, impractical.

The park and sculptures are another block over.

These sculptures are in the plaza of the U.S. Courthouse. A quick google search shows that the artist is Tom Otterness and the work is called, "Rockman". They are made from bronze.

When these sculptures were first installed, I remember reading an editorial saying that they weren't appropriate for a federal courthouse building. They were too "whimsical". Well, you know what I say to that...

"BRING ON THE WHIMSY!"

Geez, it's not like you can have too much whimsy in your life. I daresay the people who have to spend time at the courthouse could probably use an extra dose of whimsy.

These guys kind of remind me of the Mr. Men and Little Miss characters by Roger Hargreaves (yes, I had to google that to get the name of the artist. Sir Google and I are bff).

Remember those guys? www.mrmen.com

Some Local Art



Detail of awesome mural on 32nd Street and Bryant Ave South in Minneapolis. Check out the whole thing below. I wish every building had an awesome mural. Truly.



This giant head sculpture is right by the Landmark Theatre in the Uptown neighborhood in Minneapolis. Cool but a little creepy. It reminds me a little of The Face of Boe from Dr. Who and a little of those Easter Island heads.

Love is a warm puppy! There's a whole group of these Peanuts sculptures in downtown Saint Paul. They are in the park right by the Saint Paul Hotel and the Landmark Center. I wait there everyday for my connecting bus. Amusingly, every Thursday they've been having giant group dance lessons in the park - salsa, swing, you name it! It looks fun.

Urban Knitting aka Guerilla Knitting

I'm not a knitter. It's been something I've been meaning to get around to learning but there are always so many projects to choose from! Anyway, have you guys heard of urban knitting (aka guerilla knitting aka yarn-bombing)? You can find out more about the phenomenon on this site (in addition to lots of other sites around the web):

http://knittaplease.com

The phenomenon is particularly popular in the pacific northwest, but this is the first example that I've seen in the Twin Cities, This is a fairly humble piece of work compared to whole trees covered in "sweaters" but still pretty cool, right? I noticed it at the 46th Street Station while waiting for a downtown train.