Dragons have come to Cleveland

five dragons on East 30th between Payne and Superior, Cleveland, O.

Ren Chen, Year of the Water Dragon, Guardian of the Eastern Sky with pearl

This is the seventh year of a public art project in, and near, Cleveland's Asia Town. In the Chinese zodiac it is the year of the dragon. There are twelve animals, and five cycles. This time, a water dragon. On one there is a limerick, reflecting Cleveland's geography and history: Eerie monsters lurked in our lake•This theory, we claim, a mistake•Crooked river caught fire• The lake's future loomed dire•These dragons guard all in their wake.

Last year there were rabbits, and this year their locales have dragons. It is a mostly one for one substitution. Some places have several years of animals on public sidewalk display. The dragon may be the most, culturally typical animal of the zodiac group, and maybe the most given to both traditional, and fanciful decoration. This sort of city distribution of a painted variety of the same model began with Zürich's lions in 1986, and then cows in 1998. The next year the herd crossed the ocean, and came to the capital of the Middle West, Chicago.

They were installed to-day, and over the weekend there is a street festival.

This one looks like a Japanese pen and ink calligraphy (sumi-e) piece.