Seattle really knows how to let its hair down. This neon image of Rapunzel on the Fremont Bridge is a neighborhood icon. Her hair used to be much longer but the bottom half of the neon isn’t there anymore for some reason. Now more than one person has said it kind of looks like an advertisement for a brothel, but hey, it’s art. What are you gonna do?
Across the street from Rapunzel on the same bridge is more neon art. This one is of an elephant battling an alligator. I know not why. But it’s interesting that the bridge is being painted blue and orange, which are the team colors for the Florida Gators. But then I’m told they’re also the colors for the Denver Broncos. Go figure.
You can’t sling a dead cat around here without hitting public art. That’s a refreshing change after living in uptight Jacksonville, Florida for 30 years. Public art is way too radical for that town. People might get ideas.
Here it’s almost a traffic hazard. I keep coming across unexpected delights and taking my foot off the gas. People tend to get a bit testy when I do that.
Here’s a sculpture that I came across when I was visiting the Ballard Locks.
And one can never forget the grumpy old Fremont Troll, clutching an actual volkswagon.
Here’s some more Seattle art that I’ve found on line that I’m looking forward to stumbling upon in person as I explore the city:
[Image Credit: visualnews.com]
[Image credits: whatrain.com]
The View from a Drawbridge 
The elephant and crocodile are from Kipling’s Just So Stories. As for the giant bronze bear with the blocks, that used to sit out front of a toy store downtown, but I don’t know if it got moved somewhere else or what happened to it when that store folded some years back. My memory of said toy store was that it had a bridge on its upper level with panels that lit up in turn as you stepped on them. But it didn’t lift like the ones we know. The Fremont Bridge’s uniquely irritating color combo of blue and upchuck orange goes back some 30 years; before that it was just upchuck orange, I should say it faded from just plain thirsty orange to upchuck orange; there was a vote taken and the blue was added. I would have favored yellow if I’d had the chance to vote, but anyway, neither the neon nor the paint have anything to do with Florida.
The family on the couch has a story behind it. One day some time before it was installed, a crazed ex-employee drove his car through the door behind it at high speed, jabbering religious drivel, harming no one but scaring the crap out of everyone. So they put that sculpture there to prevent a recurrence. The lobby of that place used to contain a real neat hanging fountain, and still might.
There is so much beneath the surface here, and I don’t just mean the beneath the streets tours!
You gotta love that crazy town… pretty soon you will be showing me the sights instead of the other way around.
Let it be a mutual exchange. 🙂
awesome
That’s pretty cool. I also read the comments and learn even more! Thanks 🙂
Yes, quite often my comment section provides the font of human knowledge that I lack. lol