Thwack Pinocchio

Low on material so I took my camera out at lunchtime yesterday. I walked through Citygarden to one many of our many food trucks, wandering through the sculptures on the way back. All of them have appeared here before. This one is Tom Otterness' Kindly Geppetto, showing the creation, or maybe the destruction, of Pinocchio. Who knows.           

Mahem At 8th And Chestnut

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Citygarden has two versions of the Pinocchio story. Jim Dine's, seen yesterday, is modeled on the Disney character and then, um, embellished. Tom Otterness' view focuses on Gepetto, the puppet maker who gives life to the toy. But that which giveth also taketh away. I've never been able to figure whether this work depicts creation or destruction. Maybe that's where the art lies.

It's supposed to be 92 F. / 33 C. today. To put it in context, here's a picture of the same statue I took right at a year ago:

Geppetto's Hammer

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Similar to Wednesday's post, fooling around in Citygarden with a wide angle lens and hand-held HDR. This is another view of Tom Otterness' Kindly Geppetto. There's a front-on look at the statue in my post of July 11. This hammer-wielding puppet maker doesn't seem kindly to me.

I noticed when I was editing this picture that Geppetto is left handed. Does that mean anything? Maybe. In Renaissance iconography, the right is protected by God while the left is open to danger. That's why Michelangelo's David looks cautiously to that side, maybe for things like Geppetto.

Up to Chicago today and tomorrow on business. Unfortunately, not likely to have time for photography.