Find the anchor in this mural. C'mon, you know it's there.

Look carefully.

The propaganda arm of INDOT's three-and-a-half-year-long bridge "renewal" project finds the city's eight-whole-years-belated interest in public art to be cute! That's mighty nice of the state, isn't it?

Now INDOT will proceed to collectively kneecap any businesses downtown that somehow manage to make it past the pandemic's first few waves still standing, by (in practical effect) closing the primary access bridge for a period LONGER than the pandemic's likely reign.

Thanks, INDOT. May we have another punch to the skull? Of course, there'll be plenty of time for fewer downtown visitors to gaze upon the artistic finery (which I personally like, by the way). 

Meanwhile, file the mural pictured here under "More Works by David Thrasher That Have Been Consigned to Oblivion" by the city.

Others include his literal painted forks in the road, as well as the sculpture of the same name, last year ingloriously displaced to the shadow of the parking garage because no one 'round here ever "got it" -- just visitors who flocked to take selfies with it.

Dave, my man; ya gotta run with the right crowd. Be internationally known, dude.

Couldn't you do one of these instead? It'd be a huge hit at the Roadhouse.

Politicians paint murals, but protesters make genuine change and real history.

Give 'em time, and we'll have statues of automobiles. I volunteer to be first in line when it comes to bringing those symbols down.

Go Ahead and Destroy That Racist Statue (and Then the System Too), by Jillian Steinhauer (The Nation)

While politicians are painting murals in lieu of undertaking real change, protesters are making history by pulling down symbols of white supremacy.

On June 9, after a week and a half of large, daily Black Lives Matter protests in New York City that began as part of a national uprising in response to the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that he was taking action: He would name a street in each of the five boroughs after Black Lives Matter and paint the name of the movement on those roads. The decision came days after Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser received widespread attention for turning a section of 16th Street NW across from the White House into Black Lives Matter Plaza, with the phrase painted in 50-foot yellow letters on the pavement. Meanwhile, a short way down the National Mall, Democratic members of Congress, most of them white, showed up at the Capitol on June 8 wearing kente stoles. They knelt for eight minutes and 46 seconds—the same amount of time that Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck—before entering their chambers to introduce the Justice in Policing Act of 2020.

Politicians around the country are performing. They’re trying to show their constituents that they’re working on the problem of white supremacy in ways big and small. They’re using gestures to attempt to broadcast a message—but one that is ultimately hollow. As Shannon Keating put it recently in BuzzFeed News, it amounts to “performative absurdity from powerful people who’ve long avoided real accountability for causing or excusing Black suffering” ...

A wee rant: Why must we have statues of "famous" people? Can't we just have art instead?

Rather than argue about which statues to remove and which to keep, I'd rather have a discussion about why humans deploy statuary as propaganda markers to begin with, a habit that strikes me as similar to dogs marking territory with urine.

Face it, there's a considerable difference between art for the sake of art and statuary for the sake of establishing what is "true." Michelangelo's David is an idealized male form. It celebrates itself. Southern cities dropping statues of Civil War "heroes" during the 1960s? That's so-called art for the sake of societal control.

Why do we do this? The planet is filled with statuary capable of being defined or redefined into repugnance, because after all, doesn't each triumphant victory arch ever erected have the side purpose of provoking the defeated?

Ordinary working men and women have created the planet's wealth -- and the rich folks (generally men) who exploited them get the statues. The same goes for street names; the best are simplest: Main, Market, Oak, Riverside and the like. Naming them for actual people is fraught with peril if objectivity is the aim, because those chosen are flawed by nature.

As I've pointed out many times, a person born in Berlin during World War I, and residing in the same building until his or her death in the mid-1990s, might have enjoyed as many as five different street addresses based on which ideology ruled at the time.

One of these days, our munificent municipal mediocrity will generously allow his fans and campaign donors to erect a statue in his honor.

And I will figure out a way to topple it.

It's godawful and tacky BUT let's look at the bright side, because it might be FAR worse.

I knew it was too good to be true.

Say what? Look, it's a pandemic parking garage painting innovation.

How many of these "branding" mechanisms do we need before the whole world understands New Albany is "anchored" to the floodplain?

Then again, it could be much worse, and Gahan might have emulated Il Duce -- again.

yes yes yes

NO NO NO

Say what? Look, it's a pandemic parking garage painting innovation.

I still like my idea better (December 4, 2016).

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My State Street Parking Garage public art dream.

Even better: Hang a Trabi right in the center.

Zoo TV Tour

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But what happened to "wrapping" the parking garage with apartments and other luxury amenities -- or did Cornerstone merely tithe the mayor's re-election slush fund and move on to a different town?

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March 19, 2017

Lucky ol' Cornerstone Engineering: Redevelopment awards $17,500 contract to explore the possibility of "wrapping the parking garage and adding apartments and businesses to the structure."

Here's one out the blue.

Redevelopment Commission secretary Adam "Where the Fix Is Always In" Dickey records Irving Joshua's strange musings on the possibility of the State Street parking garage's adaptive reuse (from the meeting of February 14).

Wouldn't you love it if Cornerstone came back with a recommendation to convert the parking garage into a farmers market?

Develop New Albany's on-line farmers market "poll" is a reeking, juvenile cesspool of intellectual dishonesty. (March 8, 2014)

Why is DNA opposed to having an intelligent community discussion about the farmers market and its place in a revitalizing downtown without resorting to the misconceptions and scaremongering?

Moreover, if we're paying engineering consultants to explore different uses for the parking garage, does it mean we don't have a parking problem, after all?

We need to hurry with the public art solution before Dogs Playing Poker wins -- again.

"New Albany Flow Park (is) a one-of-a-kind skate-able work of art."

The New Albany Flow Park has been completed and is open for wintertime use. Following is the Carnegie Center's press release, edited only slightly for much needed fumigation.

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... The Carnegie Center for Art and History is proud to announce the completion of the New Albany Flow Park, a one-of-a-kind skate-able work of art on New Albany’s waterfront, enhancing the Ohio River Greenway. The New Albany Flow Park is a unique and ambitious project that integrates art with healthy living and quality of place initiatives.

Carnegie Director Eileen Yanoviak says, “The park is now a destination for locals and tourists alike, highlighting our shared Ohio River history in an unexpected way. It really removes the barriers to arts access, bringing free, interactive arts experiences directly to people in the community.”

The concept originated with Carnegie Center curator Daniel Pfalzgraf, a lifelong skateboarding enthusiast. “The New Albany Flow Park is a dream come true that will have a positive impact for many years to come,” says Pfalzgraf. He credits ... the community for the “vision and commitment to bring this intersection of art, history, and physical activity to life.”

“This truly is an authentic park that will add to our growing list of amenities along the New Albany Shoreline, and it would not have been possible without the support of some outstanding organizations” ...

 ... The $500,000 New Albany Flow Park renovation is possible with support from SoIN Tourism, Develop New Albany, Carnegie Center for Art and History Inc., Humana Foundation, Community Foundation of Southern Indiana, Duke Energy Foundation, Caesars Foundation of Floyd County, and Samtec Cares.

In early Spring, a full ribbon cutting and celebration for the New Albany Flow Park will take place, including a memorial for beloved local skater Matt Brewer.

Details about the New Albany Flow Park

The New Albany Flow Park is a non-traditional public art project that rehabilitated an underutilized and outdated skatepark along New Albany's waterfront into a skate-able and playful work of art. Located between the Amphitheater and the Sherman Minton Bridge, the park has been transformed into interactive, stylized Ohio River scene that celebrates the robust history of the region.

Complete with a steamboat and symbols of Ohio River bridges and land- and waterscapes, the design is the result of a collaborative process between the community, the Carnegie Center, and Hunger Skateparks, a nationally-recognized design and build firm based in Bloomington. The design is aesthetically pleasing, historically significant, and functionally interactive as a skate- and playpark.

The project provides a diverse community gathering space that integrates art and creativity with healthy living and the ongoing riverfront beautification efforts of the Ohio River Greenway Project. The Ohio River Greenway has been underway since the 1970’s, intending to highlight a multi-community River Heritage. The New Albany Flow Park project and site enhances the recreational and artistic amenities of New Albany and the region, improving quality of life and economic development.

An anchor-free public art tale of two dragons, in New Albany and far away to the east of Silver Creek.

Back in mid-November, the Green Mouse indulged in (partially founded) speculation.

GREEN MOUSE SAYS: Is this the next public art installation in New Albany?

While we were away, a pet dragon appeared at the office of Halo Applications at 1931 East Spring Street. Jim Sprigler explained it to me.

Credit to the artists that built him for a Halloween prop that didn’t have the heart to dismantle him for parts for next year's piece, Julie Schweizer (Art Seed) for seeing their Facebook post and passing along their contact info, and my dad and his friend for hauling it over here.

Public art without Dear Leader's direct inspiration and wheel-greasing? Say it ain't so, and big thanks to Jim, Julie and everyone else who are thinking outside New Albany's traditional boxes.

Meanwhile we returned from a city where dragons have been part of the public landscape for many a year.

Dragon symbols have thus been present in Ljubljana since ancient times. The dragon was originally present on the medieval coat of arms as a decoration, but later assumed a more central position. From its initial portrayal as a monster, the dragon gradually transformed into a symbolic protector of the city, embodying power, courage and wisdom.

Ljubljana gets dragons and we are given anchors.

Advantage: Slovenia.

GREEN MOUSE SAYS: Is this the next public art installation in New Albany?

Well, is it? That's what the mouse hears. What about you?

Return of the Fork in the Road public art installation -- bad location, but it's Gahanism, after all.

I'm told this is a "dry fitting" to get the base calibrated (thanks, E; also thanks to K for the tip). It's a horrendous location; there's no "fork in the road," and the installation will be overshadowed by the parking garage, but in New Gahania we save the best spots for the most generic structures -- because that's how pay-to-play gets done, whippersnapper.

Like here. Think of it as an easel for Dogs Playing Poker, and you get an idea of the mayor's aesthetic sensibility.

Although it looks like Team Gahan spoke with "forked" tongues.

GREEN MOUSE SAYS: Sources suggest the farmers market is a likely location for the fork in the road's resurrection.

#DrainTheGahanSwamp #DitchTheGahanClique

GREEN MOUSE SAYS: Sources suggest the farmers market is a likely location for the fork in the road's resurrection.

It's a measure of the aesthetic incomprehension with which Slick Jeffrie views reality that when surveying the landscape for place to hide the captive sculpture "Fork in the Road," he ignores the original placement at a "fork" in the median owing to the pressing need to provide even more space for cars, concentrates instead on the cheese platform, and concludes it must be placed at the farmers market because literal-mindedness is what the Union of Simplistic Politicos requires of members whose dues are paid by the likes of HWC.

All this assumes the popular piece of public art wasn't been dashed to kindling during the course of a hurried dismantlement in March to make way for Deaf Gahan's "Arc de Pay Up Suckers."

Okay, so the Green Mouse did not obtain this information. I simply asked Tonya Fischer at this morning's merchant meeting, and she told the attendees that her understanding is the farmers market as a site for relocation.

Back to your midday martinis, those yummy concoctions necessary to survive the appalling philistinism of Democratic Party ruling elites hereabouts.

The Fork (and Cheese) in the Road has not been seen because Jeff Gahan is holding it hostage until someone gives him more campaign finance gravy.

The Fork (and Cheese) in the Road has not been seen because Jeff Gahan is holding it hostage until someone gives him more campaign finance gravy.

It's an election year, and all of Team Gahan's campaign-finance-enhancement construction projects are behind schedule, so the whip is coming down. Crews are rushing to complete various beak-wetting bonanzas as the rest of us scratch our heads and recall those two forgotten words in Gahanist lore: quality control.

Many people have asked what became of Fork in the Road, the sculpture removed by Gahan's mercenary thugs in the run-up to unnecessary Market Street beautification.

The city has not commented on the whereabouts of the Fork (and cheese) in the Road. What we'll get instead of a unique, iconic locally produced sculpture is an HWC IKEA ceremonial gate that looks like every other such Disney-fried atrocity in every other place where money-grubbing politicians farm art to aesthetic assassins -- like HWC.

Next: Gahan’s beloved Dogs Playing Donor — I mean, poker.

Gahan the Destroyer's war on public art: Down comes the Fork in the Road, up goes the inevitable replacement.

New Albany's Fork in the Road to fall victim to HWC's whitewashed and IKEA-inspired design.

The Jeff Gahan Money Machine, Part 16: Last week's minutes from the Board of Public Works and Safety reveal big donors daintily lapping their gravy.

Gahan the Destroyer's war on public art: Down comes the Fork in the Road, up goes the inevitable replacement.

The Fork in the Road came down at 1:00 p.m. today.

Our Green Mouse says that Team Gahan, having mistaken a Greek island in the Mediterranean island for a kitschy defunct mass market furniture store, plans to install the Colossus of Rhodes Gahan to greet visitors to all the downtown businesses he's personally opened these past eight years.

Someone go out and get a shitload of ribbon.

New Albany's Fork in the Road to fall victim to HWC's whitewashed and IKEA-inspired design.

And this. We probably won't see the Fork in the Road again, because that's how dismally short-sighted they are.

#FireGahan2019

Jeff Gahan redefines the Human Rights Commission as an exciting new captive mayoral art project.

This post was edited on September 7 to correct an unfair bias against HRC appointee Cliff Staten. For the explanation, go here.

Mayor Jeff Gahan has released the winning entry in his Human Rights Commission Mayoral Art Project, which posed the question: Can you take this strange idea ...

... and make it palatable to Democratic Party voters?

And the winner is: JEFF GAHAN!

Here is the mayor's winning entry.

To recap:

Gahan belatedly rediscovers misplaced "pride," appoints Warren Harding Nash to the long lost Human Rights Commission, and disappears back into the bunker.

Predictably paranoiac and suitably suspicious, and unable to find any symbolic minorities to co-opt with Human Rights Commission seats, Gahan appointed two old straight white males tied to the local Democratic hierarchy, so no, he's not exactly artistic, our Jeffrey.

The bunker-bound mayor seeks only to control the HRC, and we need to understand that assigning political cronies like Nash to an HRC kept inert on blocks by Gahan himself over a period of YEARS reflects absolutely no commitment to human rights.

Gahan barely understands the concept, much less cares to pursue it. Rather, it's about appointing loyal Democratic sycophants to keep CONTROL over the apparatus -- in short, to try to ensure the HRC remains dormant.

The last thing Gahan wants is an autonomous, principled and active HRC, because the first order of business for an autonomous, principled and active HRC would be investigating Gahan's record in office.

The good news? It's a malfunction that we can repair, very soon.

#FireGahan2019
#FlushTheClique
#CleanSweep2019
#GetOutYourPitchforks
#VacantGahanValues

Public art: Is it Funchal (Madeira) or New Albany (Indiana)?

Duh -- of course it's Madeira; there ain't no palm trees in Nawbany, but apparently when David Duggins became enamored with the imagery of Anchors, he didn't bother with a trademark.

Note this shop in Porto.

Back in Funchal, we found no shortage of public art in Zona Velha. It's the city's "old town," with some buildings dating to the 1500s. These days Zona Velha is Funchal's restaurant district.

As you look at these photos, just think about the possibilities when art bubbles up from the grassroots, rather than being dictated by higher-ups.

A reminder: Funchal is the capital city of Madeira, which is an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean west of Morocco. Since 1976, Madeira has been an autonomous region of Portugal.