Slice of Life: Elks Sculptures

Many of Chicago's architectural treasures of verboten to the general public.  This is not true of the Elks Veterans Memorial (2750 North Lakeview Avenue) in Lincoln Park.  Anyone is welcome to come in and look around and marvel at the artwork, the sculptures, and the design.  And the Elks won't even bother you for a donation.  Though the building is a little forbidding on the outside, inside it's very welcoming and worth a visit.

If you happen to show up at a time when the memorial isn't open, there's still plenty to marvel at outside, including this four-person sculpture to the south of the main rotunda.  Unfortunately, while the Elks web site has lots of information about the building's interior art, I couldn't find any information on the site explaining the exterior sculptures.

Slice of Life: Heart in His Hands

A bridge abutment on North Union Street is the home of this time-worn piece of art.  It's a depiction of a human heart being cradled in a pair of human hands.  Is it creepy?  Maybe.  Is it a social statement?  Who can say?  It's always just wonderful to stumble across works of art in unexpected places.

Historic Video of the Unveiling of Chicago's Picasso

There's a video on YouTube showing the unveiling of the massive Picasso sculpture in front of the Daley Center back in 1967.

Slice of Life: Plumbers Protecting Chicago

This mural is on display in one of the stairwells of the Chicago Journeymen Plumbers Local 130 union hall at 1400 West Washington in the Near West Side.  It features Buckingham Fountain, the old Chicago Water Tower, the Wrigley Building, and other Chicago landmarks.

Iron Maiden at Holy Name Cathedral

No, it's not a roof-fixing fund raiser headlined by the English rockers from last century.  What popped up in the parking lot of Holy Name Cathedral this weekend turned even more heads than the elderly metal heads would.

It was a 33-foot-tall statue of the Virgin Mary.  Specifically, a stainless steel statue called Our Lady of the New Millennium.

Her appearance was enough to stop traffic on State Street and cause people waiting on Superior to miss their green lights staring at the thing.

Apparently, it's been around for almost a decade and has been touring various parishes in the area. We've been in Chicago six years, and this is the first time we've seen it, so it's new to us.

The 8,400-pound Mary was made by Delaware sculptor Charles Parks at the behest of Chicago South Sider Carl Demma.  He commissioned it in 1995 and gave it to the Archdiocese of Chicago to inspire local Catholics.  Carl died on June 25, 2000 -- shortly after his dream was fulfilled.

So keep your eye open.  You never know where she might pop up next.

Illuminating Loop Art

The good news is that we're not on crack.  A few weeks ago I published a blog entry about the renovation of the CTA State/Lake elevated station .  As part of the renovation, the facade is now illuminated by color-changing LEDs.  It's very cool, especially with the Chicago Theater and WLS Television marquees right next to it.

When I published that entry I thought that maybe I'd been seeing things.  Someone who worked on the station renovation even wrote that he knew nothing about it. While I haven't been able to get down there on foot at night lately to confirm what I saw, I did at least see it again.

Once again -- on the 151 bus heading north on State Street, just before the turn eastward on Washington there it was again in all its glowing glory -- the "light bridge."  I've circled it in orange in this crappy camera phone picture  (yeah, I know my lawyer will have a fit for publishing camera phone pix shot on a CTA bus).

I really am going to make an effort to get down there and shoot it properly.  It's silly since I live and work maybe a dozen blocks away.  But somehow something else always comes up.