Speaking of Home by Nancy Ann Coyne

I’ve been thinking about downtown Cincinnati skywalks as sites for public art, and I just came across a project entitled Speaking of Home by Nancy Ann Coyne. Installed last year in IDS Center /Macy’s Skyway in Minneapolis, the project featured large-scale portraits of new Minnesotans, along with their countries of origin, definitions of “home,” and the word “home” in each native language.

Earth Print by Jane Kim

Artist Jane Kim was born in Chicago and now lives and works in Oakland, CA. This limited-edition print is her collaboration with Berkeley-based letterpress studio Olive-Route, which designs and prints lovely work, including stationery, art prints, and event invitations, sometimes in collaboration with other artists. See more examples of the studio’s work in its online shop.

Cincinnati Athletic Club Mural

Tucked away in Shillito Place downtown, on the side of the Cincinnati Athletic Club is this metal assemblage of a mural. It’s not the easiest site to photograph, nor is this the easiest artwork to understand. Above is some sort of dumbbell motif; below, I’m not sure. More exercise equipment?

LEGO Architecture by Sean Kinney

Ben Franklin Bridge by Sean Kinney

NYC-based Sean Kinney plays with LEGO for a living! He has produced commissions for galleries, museums, television, publications, celebrities, and companies like Google, ABC, Mazda, JP Morgan Chase, ELLE, and FAO Schwarz. A few of the sculptures are available for sale, as are posters and prints of his work, which you can purchase in his online shop.

Elsewhere

A Moving Tale: The Power Of Conversation: everyone, say hello to soon-to-be Cincinnati transplants George and his wife.

Cincinnati Heritage Tours: the Cincinnati Museum Center’s Heritage Programs offer a series of awesome tours of various area sites.

Take a Ride on the Anderson Ferry: in words and pictures.

Vilsack Establishes the People’s Garden Project on Bicentennial of Lincoln’s Birth: this awesome news is six weeks old, but still worthy of mention.

Taking a Dream Underground: desperate economic times call for the return of the busker.

Putting Vacant Houses To Use: funny, but not really, tips courtesy of The Onion.

Street Art and the Recession: does street art thrive during an economic meltdown?

Arriba Juntos in San Francisco

Based in the Mission district of San Francisco, Arriba Juntos is an employment and job training program that supports economic self-sufficiency for area families. The mural was designed by local artist Catalina Gonzalez, and includes a poem by Alvaro Gutierez.

The State of Smith’s Toggery Shoppe

Last summer, there was a bit of discussion regarding whether or not 3CDC had bought up the buildings that house Smitty’s, a.k.a. Smith’s Toggery Shoppe. According to this sign I spotted the other day, 3CDC seems to own at least the southern-most building, and the area is part of its Phase III.

Serigraphs by Evan Hecox

Montauk by Evan Hecox

Evan Hecox is a Colorado-based artist whose work focuses on the complexity and isolation of urban environments. Compare Hecox’s work with the cityscapes of Katsuyuki Nishijima, Mark Coomer, and Paola Serrao.

Skywalk to Nowhere

Downtown Cincinnati has a network of skywalks connecting many of the office buildings. This one, at 5th and Race, used to connect to a building that’s been replaced by a parking lot, so it’s now a dead end. I’ve heard that it may eventually be removed. In the mean time, or instead of demolition, here are some alternate use ideas.

Drip Plates by Cat Merrick

Brooklyn-based Cat Merrick sandblasts vintage ceramic plates to remove most of their decoration, leaving only a seemingly abstract design. These “drip” plates are/were decorated with traditional pastoral scenes.