The Secret Word Today: Scary. AHHHHHH!

In our ongoing series on the public art around Emeryville, there's these metal people populating the underpass on Powell Street leading to the freeway. They're all larger than life-size with cutouts specially lit to make for some interesting shadows at night.

 

Here's a nice man giving someone directions from a map.

 It's a map of Emeryville in case you were wondering. 

 

Here's a guy jogging with his dog.

Here's a lady in a wheelchair. I don't know if she should be traveling so fast...in the underpass...so close to the traffic.

The style reminds us of "Pee-Wee's Playhouse" somehow. Maybe it's the eyes. Or just the general awesome creepiness. We'll try to get over there at night. It's a little bit of a dicey walk . . . but totally worth it. You'll see.

Danger: High Voltage, Or Something

There's a lot of public art in Emeryville. It's hard to miss as you walk past it every day. Some of it is a little unconventional.

One artist has his art on utility boxes throughout the city. They're his take on the traditional pedestrian figure. Normally you see the figure doing normal things on signs like crossing the street (pedestrian crossing) or crossing the street with a bookbag (school crossing). Here, he's doing odd things you don't normally see. Such as (see above) growing a tree out of his foot? Or...

...giving himself an autopsy? Or...

Well, I don't know. Now you're just ripping off Saul Bass. And are you doing the robot??

I'm not paying 99 cents for that.

Erik recently transferred his driver's license back to California. Devotees might remember that the last time he changed out his license some mild snakehandling was involved. This time, he was struck by the number of snotty posters at the DMV about drunk driving, texting and driving, etc. Some were iPhone-themed, others were more just outdated internet themed.

Ok. The one on the left has an open grave and really doesn't make much sense grammatically unless you accept that myspace is a thing anymore (which it's not). 

On the right, it's not a great photo but the poster says "Drunk driving? We got an app for that." First, it seems odd that the DMV would have an app for anything, let alone death. Secondly, the icon is a grim reaper? That seems a little too predictable for my taste, a coffin with a martini on it would've been much, much cooler.

City of Industry (Sculptures)

We've been touring our (temp) hometown of Emeryville whenever time and weather allows. It's a small place, with a lot of interesting history and buildings.

We noticed this gem before we even signed our lease. It's not the only reason we live here, but it definitely didn't hurt. The building is actually a working office for PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric for those of you who've never lived in California or are just not so great at acronyms).

There are two sections with three scenes per section. We're not sure what these murals are called, so we've decided to name each scene for you:

Brighty of the Grand Canyon's Cousin (It's a long story, Karen really liked that book as a small child.)

Flames of Industry (that's probably it's real name, we should really Google things before writing posts.)

Daniel Plainview's Alternate Life Story

Whew, three more left!

 Salmon Voyeur

 Just Before Dr. Frankenstein Animates His Monster

Crazy Lines (apparently one of M.C. Escher's first drafts)