A2 Innovation
We’re a little late to the whole storm and sewer party, but so far no one’s mentioned the best part of the meeting (besides Blaine getting thrown out): the mention of the city’s “innovative” method of painting fire hydrants. That is, getting elementary schoolers to do the work. We hear there’s a fence that needs to be painted too.
I feel like such a Scrooge loathing those fire hydrants the way I do. They’re the first objects in Ann Arbor that seriously made me consider vandalism. They were before the footballs, though.
posted by Michael McC. on June 22nd, 2006 at 9:34 amI think some of them are pretty good (I like the pointillism one at Catherine & N. Main and the dalmation one by the firehouse). The ones painted by children are kind of an eyesore.
posted by OFWinsurgent on June 22nd, 2006 at 9:44 amJust wait they’ve taken to painting the streets electrical boxes. My boyfriend and I were walking near Liberty and/Thompson and saw a note on an electrical box that read “do not flyer art project in progress”. Lo and behold we saw a finished version of this “art project” across from Amer’s on the corner of the Diag.
Last summer I saw a traditional japanese painting of a samurai in the alley next to the lingerie store on Liberty. Sadly when I went back to photograph it the painting was white washed over. Good thing we’re saving up all the electrical boxes and hydrants for all the real artist!
posted by uniqueolive on June 22nd, 2006 at 10:07 amYou guys are harsh. That fire hydrant on Wikipedia was painted by my kid, who was ten. The kids were told to choose an artist and paint a fire hydrant in that style. My daughter chose Georgie O’Keefe, was selected to paint, assigned the hydrant outside Village Corner and given the paint. But…although her design included purple flowers, she was not given any purple paint. (Fortunately, she was given orange paint.)
She LOVED painting that hydrants, and those nice fellows who sit outside VC a lot enjoyed watching her paint it.
I agree though with AAIO…cheap labor.
posted by JennyD on June 22nd, 2006 at 10:50 amHeh. I just linked to that hydrant because I needed a picture and it was the first one that came up in an image search, if that makes it any better. I do admire your level-headed attitude; my mom probably would have gone all South Side (as she says; she grew up on the South Side of Chicago) on a blogger who snarked on my childhood work.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on June 22nd, 2006 at 10:56 amNo offense to your kid in particular JennyD…I’m thinking of some other ones in my neighborhood.
posted by OFWinsurgent on June 22nd, 2006 at 11:04 amAnd uniqueolive, the hydrants and power boxes belong to the city. That alley wall belongs to whoever Thano’s landlord is, and if they couldn’t cut a deal on rent to keep the Lamplighter open, I’m guessing they don’t have a lot of use for freelance wall art, either.
posted by Chris on June 22nd, 2006 at 11:04 amI really liked one of the electrical boxes I saw while riding the bus this morning…I think it was on the corner of Fifth and Liberty.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on June 22nd, 2006 at 11:15 amI kind of agree with JennyD. This is a little over-the-top cranky, even for this site. Let the kids have some fun.
posted by Nick on June 22nd, 2006 at 11:49 amI don’t see any harm in painting mudane crap… it isn’t like the unadorned objects in question are nice to look at anyway. Sometimes I think folks here can be overly critical of what amounts to a bit of whimsy. But I guess that’s an Ann Arbor attitude too.
posted by Dave on June 22nd, 2006 at 11:50 amI take no offense at all.
I was annoyed, though, that the paint we were given was not of the best quality. It’s already cracking. I was also seriously annoyed that someone spray painted yellow over the hydrant painting with a few weeks of its completion.
And, c’mon, Georgia O’Keefe and she didn’t get any purple paint?
posted by JennyD on June 22nd, 2006 at 11:51 amThe Lamplighter is closing???? Say it ain’t so…
That was my favorite place for pizza.
posted by Houstonian on June 22nd, 2006 at 12:11 pmDave, one could O.D. on whimsy in this town.
posted by OFWinsurgent on June 22nd, 2006 at 4:45 pmOkay, maybe this is a little more critical than necessary, but I don’t think the intent of this post was to criticize the work of any individual kids. The criticism was aimed at the decisions of the city in its twin goals of quirkiness and cheapness.
Why is it that nobody is allowed to criticize anything remotely related to kids. It seems like the formula on this blog is:
1. Critical take on mundane AA activities posted by AAIO
posted by A Non-Mouse on June 22nd, 2006 at 6:56 pm2. Several hours of silence while the snarksters calculate some jokes
3. Said snarksters begin further criticizing mundane activity in question
4. Somehow kids come into the conversation - they ALWAYS find their way into the conversation
5. Parents (though usually not of the actual kids in question) get all huffy and try to make anybody feel like total crap who would dare to criticize kids, kids’ stuff, the idea of having kids, or anything remotely involving kids
6. Subgroup of snarksters backs down saying it wasn’t personal and of course kids are perfect and Ann Arbor parents infallible
7. Conversation descends into personal annectdotes and pissing contests over who has seen the most obscure bands or artists
Oh, relax. Even I’m not that crazed about this. Look if you want great public art, don’t ask a bunch of ten-year-olds to paint fire hydrants. If you need the hydrants painted anyway, think of it as sort of legal graffiti.
I think footballs were much worse.
But let’s have a face-off: fairy doors vs. fire hydrants?
posted by JennyD on June 22nd, 2006 at 9:26 pmThe footballs sucked. Period, period, period,… .. . . Ok, well there were 2 that were decent, one I didn’t see but heard about (they actually cut the fiberglas open and put a mini football game inside and sounded grrrrreat!) the other was only half decent (near kerrytown). Ok, I didn’t see them all, but fuck, the state of the art world today sucks, prarially just because those with enough talent to make something decent out of the fiber glass footballs are probably being taught that its a bastardazation of your soul to do work for corporations like the NFL.
Yes, lets all just admit it, kid art generally sucks. There are the 1 in a billion (correct ration within 5%) that actually are amazint. But the shit around town is garbage. I’m glad jennyD’s kid knows about GoK, but her work was just garbage anyhow.
No, for those who think ann arbor is trying to get cheap art. No one, EVEN THOSE ON CITY COUNCIL, think that kid art is going to be any good. They aren’t aiming for cheap art, just trying to get the community spirits up.
electric boxes, well fuck. The one on the diag at state and NU is a fucking gay flag! that is not art! Look, I was hanging and socializing with a gay person tonight, I got nothing against them, but he rainbow flag was used for other purposes before them (so its a fuckng confused simbol) and its not art. I’m sorry, did you hear that its NOT ART. So some fucking dyke got some free paint to make a rainbow flag, shit spend that money on a good graffiti or stencil artist instead, oh wait, thos fuckers can’t work if its approved by the MAN (god forbid)
JennyD, doors VS hydrants, even though I hate the fuckin hell out of those stupid ass fairy doors, they are well executed, so they beat the shit out of the hydrant (though thats like asking me to chosoe between eating dog shit and human shit.
sorry folks, good vodka and general bitterness where the ingrediants for this post, and since most of you have masters degrees (if not PHD’s) , and mine is only a bachelors (for now) i’m not going to spell check this shit!!!
posted by Just a Voice on June 22nd, 2006 at 11:36 pmoh, yah, PS
fuck blaine, whish they showed him what true police brutatliy was!
posted by Just a Voice on June 22nd, 2006 at 11:38 pmJust a voice - you’re an idiot with a filthy mouth (and writing style).
posted by Anonymous on June 23rd, 2006 at 12:01 pmAye thiMK a lotta kid arp is amazint.
posted by Nitro on June 23rd, 2006 at 1:01 pmOK, The hydrants suck…both in concept and execution, but I think it’s much more important to assign blame. What city official is responsible for using valuable resources (both in child labor and discount rate paint) that could’ve been much more wisely spent on the Greenway and Greenway related development programs? This is an outrage.
posted by KBlow on June 23rd, 2006 at 2:22 pmYou know who is interested in a child’s art. Their parents. That’s why you have a fridge at home folks.
posted by uniqueolive on June 23rd, 2006 at 2:38 pmHave you guys seen the Damien Hirst Fire Hyrant? It’s cut in half and full of pee.
posted by Nitro on June 23rd, 2006 at 3:38 pmAs far as kid “art” goes, I can’t add anything to Maddox’s classic:
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=irule
posted by Dave on June 23rd, 2006 at 4:02 pmROFLpaste Maddox will be signing books and fielding intelligent questions at Borders Books this coming tuesday at 7pm ZOMFG !!!!!!sdlk ghd;k vfdiug
posted by Gina on June 25th, 2006 at 2:13 pm