Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Cast of Cultures

Cast of Cultures

Photo & Text Copyright 2009 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.

As a follow up to yesterday's post, I thought we'd keep looking down for what I like to call "art underfoot." Embedded in the sidewalk along the southeastern corner of the Ferdinand and Rainier Ave S intersection is a public art project of small bronze castings called the Cast of Cultures. You see here just a few of the varied and interesting cultural representations of the citizenry and heritage of the Columbia City neighborhood in the south eastern portion of Seattle. You can view them all from the comfortable sidewalk seating of Lottie's Lounge in the historic Columbia Hotel building.

5 comments:

Small City Scenes said...

Love it!!!! very creative.

MB

Stefan Jansson said...

The only problem as I see it with all this art underfoot is that you risk colliding with everyone around you as you keep looking down at the ground all the time!

Pat said...

I love these! I think looking down for art is safer than looking up. I've taken a stumble or two looking at facades...

Is that your tootsie in the black Mary Jane Croc? I have a black MJ pair, but w/o the holes.

brattcat said...

These are wonderful. I love the way embedded metal takes on the patina of wear. So many feet moving across them warms them, somehow, don't you think?

Kim said...

Thanks MB!
And Steffe, what has really been interesting over the years is how people react when they notice you paying attention to something like this. One guy at Lottie's a year or so ago mentioned he's never noticed them before, and was a regular. Some folks avoid what you are photographing, and others walk right through the shot and never even notice ME. . .:-)

Bibi, yes that is my foot in the brown Crock mary jane. I was glad the strap didn't show, though because our older cat is a plastic freak and has put little decorative puncture marks all along the strap :-). I often try to get a foot in these shots to show some sense of scale and if someone else isn't handy I'll catch my own in there (I wear size 7 US measure). Gives a boring shot some interest and the bright green Smart Wool sock and hint of pink Chucks (that's the only older shot in this set) add some color.