Statues With Limitations

King Puck - Killorglin, County Kerry, Ireland

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The statue commemorates the ancient festival "Puck Fair," which takes place each year in Killorglin, on August 10-12. Every year a goat catcher goes up into the mountains to catch a wild goat. The goat is elevated onto a high stand in the town square. On the 3rd day he is brought down and led back to his mountain home.

Photo (circa 1900)

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Statue of limitations – An Irishman’s Diary about Dublin monuments, famous and otherwise
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"Remember “Molly Malone Day”? No, nor did I, until I was passing the statue of the buxom Dublin fishmonger the other night, and a fragment of overheard tour-guide commentary set me reading about her again".


"A large group of visitors had gathered around the sculpture and was hanging on the guide’s every word. He had his arm draped around Molly and, to judge from the audience’s laughter, was a bit of a character.
Unfortunately for my attempts to eavesdrop, he was also German. So the only word I could make out was “syphilis”, although that got a laugh too".


"This brought back vague memories of a time when Molly, rather than being a fictionalised version of a real-life type, was considered an historical figure. It started in 1980s, like the statue itself, when somebody unearthed records for a Mary Malone (what were the chances of that in Dublin?) who had lived between 1663 and 1699, and might have sold fish".


"From there, other biographical details were filled in – apparently excavated from between the lines of the ballad. Chief among these were that she had supplemented her day job with night work, selling goods for which she didn’t need a wheelbarrow. And that the “fever” from which she died was most likely a euphemism for another occupational hazard".
 
Abe waiting for his close-up — with you — on campus

URBANA — "Alma Mater may still be on hiatus, but University of Illinois students have a new campus photo op with a pretty well-known historical figure".

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"The Statue of Lenin is a 16-foot (4.9 m) bronze sculpture of Communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin located in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. Initially installed in Czechoslovakia in 1988, the sculpture was removed after the Velvet Revolution and later purchased and brought to the United States by an American English teacher in the 1990".

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The "Big Baby"....Duncan Farm Art.
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"If you've traveled through the West Valley on Interstate 10 over the past several years, chances are you know exactly what this person is referring to when he asks about the "child playing with a tractor" sign located to the side of the interstate.


It has been somewhat of a landmark for families traveling to or from the West coast, often signaling the start or end to a big road trip. Can you recall seeing it lately? That's what Roy points out with his question".
 
Wilbur Wright and the Statue of Liberty

"In 2002, when I first learned of Wilbur Wright’s 1909 flight around the Statue of Liberty, I knew I wanted to paint the scene. It would take 10 years of research, and I would end up building two models of the Flyer and its controls before I felt able to capture the moment on canvas. By the time I started my painting, which was recently accepted into the National Air and Space Museum’s collection, I’d learned the full story behind that historic flight". - Dean Mosher

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Lorann Jacobs' statue of Emma Hunter, Elizabeth Meyer, and Sophie Keller, in Boalsburg, PA, commemorates arguably the first observance of Memorial Day.

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Larger Picture

"If Boalsburg had anything to do with it, Memorial Day would indeed be in the autumn. Boalsburg claims to be the site of the earliest observation of Decoration Day, now known as Memorial Day. The specific date of the inaugural decorating in October of 1864, however, is unknown. Many communities make this claim, but only two have significant reasons for their claim. Boalsburg had the earliest grave decorations. Waterloo, New York, because of a 1966 Presidential order declaring it the birthplace of Memorial Day. "

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"Both communities have strong arguments supporting their claims and both are deserving of recognition. If Boalsburg had more information supporting their claim and proof of a continued tradition in 1865-1868, there would be no doubt whatsoever of the fact that they were the first to observe Memorial Day."

The origin of Memorial Day is best summed up by US Memorial Day Organization:

It is more likely that it had many separate beginnings; each of those towns and every planned and spontaneous gathering of people to honor the war dead in the 1860s tapped into the general human need to honor our dead, each contributed honorably to the growing movement that culminated in Gen Logan giving his official proclamation in 1868. It is not important who was the very first, what is important is that Memorial Day was established. Memorial Day is not about division. It is about reconciliation; it is about coming together to honor those who gave their all.

http://pabook2.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/Memorial.html
 
"A new statue of The Beatles has been unveiled in Liverpool - 50 years after their last show in Merseyside.
The bronze sculpture, which weighs 1.2 tonnes, has been given to the city by the Cavern Club - the venue synonymous with the Fab Four in the 1960s.
The depiction of the band walking along the Mersey reflects a real photo shoot.
Sculptor Andy Edwards said he hoped his statue, which stands on the Pier Head, would become "a place of ritual" for people to come together".


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Standin' on the Corner Park, Winslow, AZ

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The original building burned in 2004, before the picture was taken, but the brick wall was restored. The park is behind the wall. The pavers are engraved with names of donors who supported the project.

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Blast from the Past: Lincoln’s Life Mask is Better than a Photograph

"If you walk over to the sculpture section of the Henry Luce III Center on the 4th floor of the New-York Historical Society, you’ll see Abraham Lincoln’s actual face… Well, the closest thing there is to it. You’ll see a bronze “life mask” of Lincoln, cast by artist Leonard Volk using a mold made on Lincoln’s actual face in 1860".

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"Volk ended up using his castings to create a statue of Lincoln in the Springfield, Illinois statehouse. Daniel Chester French also studied Volk’s mask in order to make the Lincoln National Monument. New-York Historical has the full-sized maquette for the head of this memorial. Check it out below- do you see the resemblance? After Lincoln’s death, castings of Volk’s life masks were sold to the public. Sometimes, they still turn up at auctions and are pretty valuable".

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(Universal Pictures, 1985) This large cat statue was acquired by the production for use as set dressing on the iconic Hill Valley Clock Tower. The cat statues were originally made for the 1982 film "Cat People" and re-used in several films and television shows including "Austin Powers in Goldmember", "Problem Child 2" and most famously during filming of the Back to the Future films. Since the cats were used in several different productions over the years, they were painted different colors, this cat was no exception having several layers of paint".
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Thanks Lara! I always liked the expression "Stubborn as a nailed board"!:p
 


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