The Art of the Elevator

One of the carvings in an elevator in the Palmolive Building (formerly known as the Playboy Building) 

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving

A Robert Indiana Hope sculpture, 

companion piece to his famous Love sculpture in Philadelphia, 

on display by the John Hancock Building

Just Hanging Around

The title says it all ...

Balcony Illusion

The Spring sun (yea!!) gave the illusion of larger balconies on this Near North Side building.

That Banner

I've always wondered about this big banner that hangs on a building in the Near North Side neighborhood. It is a list of names (I now know there are 69 names and a blank line).

There were some patterns:

• American Presidents (Lincoln, Washington, Kennedy, Jefferson)
• Religious Figures (Jesus Christ, Dalai Llama, Buddha, Mother Theresa)
• World Politics (Chavez, Mandela, Gorbachev, Biko)
• Historical Women (Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Tubman)
• Creative Types (John Lennon, Ayn Rand, Maya Angelou, Mozart)
• Smart People (Einstein, Socrates, Galileo)

But I could never come up with any real theme. And to make things more confusing, there were some names that I wouldn't necessarily expect to see on the same banner. Jack Kervorkian and Geronimo? Frank Zappa and Henry Thoreau? Rush Limbaugh and Robert Mapplethorpe? And did that blank line mean someone got kicked off the list?

It took a bit of creative Googling but I now know it is The Freedom Wall. It was created by a Chicago artist named Adam Brooks. His goal in creating the banner was to "represent the idea of freedom in all its potential interpretations". He developed the list by getting votes from responses to e-mails, polling surveys, and letters. People with the most "mentions" in the responses got on the banner, which is shown in order of votes/mentions. The blank line isn't someone who was deleted but represents the idea that no one person represents "freedom".

Done for the Day

The shovelers probably just decided to call it a day and get somewhere warm. Since the sidewalk was cleared, I'd say it was a well-earned rest.

Flattened

Be careful out there. These poor guys got flattened while they were trying to warn others about the falling ice and snow.

Blue Light Road

Pioneer Court on Michigan Avenue's blue sidewalk lights

Wipe Out

I always get the tune "Wipe Out" stuck in my head when I see this statue. But, the statue has nothing to do with surfing.

It's real name is Crossing and it is by a sculptor named Hubertus von der Goltz. The title and statue refer to "the delicate balance of commercial and cultural districts that converge along the LaSalle Street corridor".

LaSalle Street Cattails

Couldn't really find much about the decorative metal and stone sculptures on LaSalle Street. They have an "Autumn" look when the light hits them just right.

Veteran's Day

I never knew the reason that Olive Park is named as it is. But I recently stumbled upon this monument in Olive Park that explains it all. It is named after Milton Olive, a Chicago native, who was only 18 years old when he was in Viet Nam and jumped on a grenade to smother it to save his four soldier companions. He was the first African American to receive the Medal of Honor in the Viet Nam war and it was awarded posthumously. (One of the Chicago City Colleges - Olive Harvey College - is also named after him.)

Lego Avenue

You just never know what you are going to find on Michigan Avenue.

Over the summer, it was refrigerators (here and there and over here and over there). Now, it is Lego statues. I think there are six or seven sprinkled along Michigan Avenue between Grand Avenue and Chicago Avenue. These are to promote a Lego Show/Kid's Fest that will be at McCormick Place.

I like the little diver that is "stuck" behind the shark's goggles - it's shown in the lower right photo in the collage.

Hi Bob

This beautiful warm Autumn weather we are enjoying prompted Dr. Robert Hartley to move his couch out to the park near his condo building. Things got out of control, though, because everyone who walked by said "Hi Bob!".

Churchill Corner

Strange that I never noticed this fairly large plaque at the corner of State and Goethe until yesterday. It commemorates the home of Dr. Frank Spooner Churchill and his wife Lucretia Mott Hallowell Churchill. The plaque indicates they were pioneers in the areas of food, water, air, sanitation, worker rights, and education reforms.

You're Kidding?!?

It's Deja Vu All Over Again.

Remember a few weeks ago when that cupcake shop opened and there was a line so I took a photo and posted it? Well, I'm walking down the street and I get this deja vu feeling because there's the now-three-week-old cupcake place and there's STILL a line. I won't stand in a line for a cupcake but I am now rather curious about them. Eventually the line will go away, right?

One More Refrigerator

This 1970s Kenmore Refrigerator, also part of the Fine Art Fridge series on Michigan Avenue, has been artsy-ed up by Chicago artist Kathryn Trumbull Fimreite. This one is called Green Lifestyles. In keeping with the name, it is covered with little pictures of "green" things people can do -- like the ones shown in the collage: riding public transportation, eating local, and using re-usable grocery bags.

Cold Feet

Is it a planter?

No.

Is Nature just taking over a lost item?

No.

It's another Fine Art Fridge on Michigan Avenue. This one is called "Running Down, Out to Pasture" by Mike Helbing. Before it was art, it was a 1952-ish General Electric Refrigerator.

Voodoo Retro Rod

I almost missed this Fine Art Fridge. This one is called Recycled Voodoo Retro Road by VooDoo Larry Grobe, a custom hotrod car designer and detailer.

It used to be a refrigerator (specifically a 1953 Philco Advanced Design) but now it is a work of art. And, according to the sign, whoever used to have it is presumably saving about $150 a year (the estimated cost of running an inefficient old back-up refrigerator) and got $25 rebate from ComEd's appliance recycling program.

Refrigerator Madness

Another make-art-out-of-some-odd-object display has taken over Michigan Avenue.

The new one is interesting, although it may not generate the tourist interest like the cows or the globes or even the furniture. (Yes, we Chicagoans like to put old stuff out in the street in the summer, as well as in the winter).

It's refrigerators. Specifically, old and inefficient ones. Commonwealth Edison is sponsoring the Fine Art Fridges display to draw attention to how much excess energy old refrigerators use. These old refrigerators are usually found in basements and garages - having been replaced by newer models in the homes. But, since the old ones still work, people tend to keep them around for use as a freezer or to keep water and soda cold. According to the accompanying sign, using that back-up old refrigerator can cost a typical household up to an additional $150 a year. ComEd, however, will take your old refrigerator away, recycle it (another reason why people hesitate to discard the old refrigerator: How do you deal with safely getting rid of that coolant stuff), and give you $25.

Or, you could decorate it and haul it down to Michigan Avenue. If you do it now, no one may notice. (I'm kidding!)

This one is called ColdSpot: A Gulf Story.

It is by artist Nicole Beck.

She created a oceanside scene on a 1956 ColdSpot Super-Mart Refrigerator

A scene on one side of the FineArt Fridge

A message on the other side of the FineArt Fridge

The front of the ColdSpot Fine Art Fridge

All For A Cupcake??

Who said this town wasn't big enough for ten different cupcake shops?

There's a new cupcake place in town. So, of course, there was a line out the door and down the street. Did I join the line? Nah ... I went to the old standby frozen yogurt shop a few blocks away.