art is good for you

 

Joel Jackson. Mandala with Seven Chakras. Now. Columbus.

 

A building marked for dental in Grandview had two American Indian statues out front. Inside, there was more art, paintings and sculptures, mostly of the same theme. Some of the offices were being painted. This one was the only one with an artist. He was enjoyed speaking on art, and was happy with my interruption.  Joel lives in Columbus, but came from south of Pittsburgh. He showed me his stencils, and computer drawing, and how the piece would look with various colours. We both agreed, art is good for you.

Columbus Ohio has a lot of painted murals, and some other outdoor (and indoor) public art. Here is some that i enjoyed on the hottest day of the year, so far [about 10 weeks ago, was my last visit, also on the hottest day of the year to that point]. I have posted others previously.  Some can no longer be viewed. One that i missed, some years ago (1999-2004), Botticelli's Venus was painted on a now no longer existing building. I wonder whether that was a conscious effort to show outdoor versions of master works. There is a version of Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, and Grant Wood's American Gothic.

A recent Star Trek Mr Spock has been painted over. This outdoor art is often temporary, while spray vandalism may last a long time. One wall painting, which i would have liked to see, has been painted over maybe a couple of years ago, maybe a little longer. Most of the wall was not painted with illustrations. Since then, the whole wall has been spray painted with a street hip hop crew. Well, that wall has been painted over several times. Good art was replaced with a loud and garish scene. One of the two obliterated ones was a Memento Mori, which portrays in art something that brings attention that death is coming.  The Latin means “remember that you will die”, or some would translate as:  “remember that you must die”.  Latin is more inflected than current English, so grammatical distinctions are embedded in the word, and additional words are not needed to clarify.

So there are paintings, and sculptures with skulls, and people contemplating death. Now this reminds us life is short, remember that, and do well. The Grim Reaper cuts and collects people with his scythe. In stories, he is death personified. Here he said, "Live, because I am coming.", a slight variation.

 Mandi Caskey & Jacob Tanner. Football Players. 2013. Franklinton.

Perhaps, Harvard-Yale is not the big game. The football collegiate yearly rivalry game is Michigan-Ohio State. Their first match was in 1897, and Michigan, Their next match was  a tie in 1900. Continuing to 1912:  Michigan won 13 times, Ohio State not at all, two games were tied. There was no game from 1913 to 1917. Ohio State's initial victory was in 1919. They have played yearly since. Michigan has retained the edge in the series.

Here we see the school colors. The ball carrier is in scarlet red, and light grey; the tackler in blue, and "maize". The ball players look a wee too old for college. That handlebar mustache is pre-1900, and the clothes maybe too.

Well, Ohio State takes the seriousness of the game rivalry to ridiculousness, and obnoxiousness. Ohio State has a chip on their shoulders. Michigan is the older (1817-21 as Catholepistemiad*, or 1837 in Ann Arbor), and much more highly regarded academic school. The name of the brewery is Land Grant. The first land grant school was Michigan State 1862, by that name 1925, it began in 1855 as Agricultural College of the State of Michigan. 1870 saw Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College founded, and eventually (1878) changed their name to Ohio State. 

Jesse Owens went to Ohio State, and i see fotos, and sculptures with him wearing a red track shirt,  the word OHIO. Ohio U's colors are green and white, and he went to Ohio State. Well, Ohio State wanted to be Ohio, and lost. Ohio was the first college in the Old Northwest in 1803.

And right close by is this message and plea for the honey bees.

Chinos Art. This part was painted first after 2020. W. Broad Str. Hilltop.

 Our Lady of Guadalupe (Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe) is the Mexican Madonna (Mary). There is no cultural image that identifies Mexico more than this. Her image is also an image of social justice, for and beyond Mexico.

It was expanded to show Mexico before the coming of the Spanish.

Jack Greaves. Unicorn in the Garden [with lily]. 1987.

Outside and across the street from the Thurber House is a small park. On the ground there is a bronze tablet that has James Thurber's fable of The Unicorn in the Garden. 

Jack Greaves. Unicorn in the Garden [with rose]. 1987.

This one is at the Columbus School for Girls in Bexley. In the story 'the mythical beast' eats flowers in the garden. When the statues were put in place, there was a procession from the one to the other. In 1992. Greaves made a different unicorn for the Scioto River downtown.

Joan Wobst. The Opera Pot. 2002. Bexley.

On the campus a few feet away is another sculpture with a small fountain in a cauldron surrounded by Wagner's Brunhild, Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, Puccini's Madame Butterfly, and Marcello from La Bohème.

One of three dog sculptures in a soon to be opened little park in Dublin Ohio. They had put in most of the cement, and paving blocks. Some flowers and mulch was there to surround the dogs. We were taking pictures, and some guy came to tell us go away. We talked a bit. He said grass sees was just put sown. We saw that under the straw. It has to have just been put down. The seed was visible, nothing was close to germination. I said, i saw a golf ball. He tells us, they took four buckets of balls out, it was a driving range before. The area is crowded with new apartments and such, and with signs threatening towing if parked on lots off a narrow two lane road.

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*Catholepistemiad:  I read that and thought it was a joke, Cat-hole-piss-the-mud. No, it was ridiculous Greco-Latin nonsense with inflated arrogance.