Mason City is home to a lot of great things—-the last remaining Frank Lloyd Wright hotel–The Historic Park Inn which I blogged about here, many parks and recreation areas, a fabulous renovated library complete with coffee shop, The Stockman House, a wonderful historical area featuring Prairie School architecture in Rock Glen ( It is the largest collection of prairie style homes in a natural setting in the world), Music Man Square which pays homage to Meredith Willson of The Music Man fame and now—-River City Sculptures on Parade ( this is their Facebook page link).
We have waited to “take the walk” until all the sculptures were installed and today was the day to do it. It was a bright sunny crisp day and the perfect Sunday afternoon outing to introduce Carlton (Chris’s brother who is visiting) to Mason City. I picked up maps and ballots at the library earlier in the week and we prepped him on what we were going to be doing. Voting on a People’s Choice Award will be valid through September 2, 2013 and the sculpture with the most votes will be purchased by the city to become part of a permanent collection.
There are 26 sculptures in all—too many to include in one post so I will spread this out over a few posts and will include links to past posts in case you miss one and want to see them all. It is a pretty amazing thing and we all enjoyed walking the downtown and taking it all in. A great thing for Mason City so if you live close please consider taking the time to take it all in.
I will feature the sculptures in the order that they are presented in the brochure and the walking trail.
Matriarchal Moon Creature by Reven Swanson
3d6+4 by Craig Snyder
3d6+4 by Craig Snyde
The dice sparked a bit of controversy in our little town. Some objected to the “gambling” aspect but the artist related that it was really a depiction of board games like Yahtzee that he remembered playing while he was growing up. The real issue appears to be the placement of the dice in the shade garden in city park—-much to the dismay of those who take care of the gardens they were positioned in a way that damaged some of the gardens. You can read one of the many articles pertaining to this in the Globe Gazette by clicking on this link.
Check Up by Carol Cunningham
All in the Same Boat by Kyle Fokken with Carlton
Jumping Through Hoops by Jacque Frazee
Jumping Through Hoops by Jacque Frazee
Effortlessly Buoyant by Gregory Mendez
Can you tell who the sculptor modeled the sculpture after???
Friendship Knot (4) by Yupin Pramotepipop
And yes—that is part of the Historic Park Inn in the background!
Bottoms Up by Deb Zeller
Which is your favorite so far?? Stay tuned for future installments of this fabulous display in our town. Don’t forget–Comments for a Cause this month goes to help support a Habitat for Humanity trip for my niece and her husband!!!! Thanks!
28 Comments
Leave a commentI love these types of temporary public sculptures and have seen two such art displays in Mankato and Bemidji. What a great way to bring art to the people and what a great way to get people into the heart of a downtown. Favorite sculpture thus far would be the boat one, probably for the message it conveys in a creative way. What a wonderful way to spend a lovely Sunday afternoon. One more reason to visit Mason City…
I told Chris when we were walking it yesterday “This would be something Audrey would LOVE”. Were your ears burning?? When you get a free day think about it! Just make sure i am in town! 🙂
“Check up” (the boy and his dog) by far. Followed by “bottoms up”.
I think I have to agree with you …but wait…there are a lot more coming!!! 🙂
The boy & dog is sweet….really like the dice! It’s so quirky!!
I love the dice—so much controversy around it, though. 🙂
I think “sense of humor” should have a place…..even in a garden bed!!!!!
🙂
I have to say Check Up is definitely my favorite, but then I’m such a softie for anything pet related. You are very lucky to be able to see all this wonderful art in one place!
It is a really neat exhibit–the one with the most votes will be purchased for the city but I bet that some of the others will be too!. At least I hope so!
I like the bottoms up one. It reminds me of middle daughter – she always does hand stands in the pool and I have a “million” pictures of her doing it! 🙂
Oh I can so totally see her doing that!!! Yep–that one would be her!!!
Since I loved going to the pool in the summer I have to go with Bottoms Up BUT I do like the Check Up one as well. Can’t wait to see what else is out there.
Stay tuned!!!! Thanks for stopping by!!!
The dice. Time to shake things up a bit in Mason.
I agree. I have to be careful what I say here. 🙂
My favorite one is the boy and dog.
“Checkup” is my favorite.
Seems to be the favorite today!
I love the friendship knot and think a smaller, much smaller version would make a cool necklace!
I liked that one, too! Come back Thursday—more then and probably more Saturday—-I haven’t written the posts yet but they are coming!!!
[…] As promised today I will give you more of the sculptures from our wonderful traveling exhibition that is located in downtown Mason City. To see the first selections click on this link and it will open a new window with my post featuring the first 8 sculptures. […]
Hard to choose one, but I stopped longer on Effortlessly Buoyant. And how did I miss this post? Good thing you linked to it. Shame on me!
I loved that one, too. There are a few that didn’t really do much for me but for the most part I kept saying “Oh –I love this one”. 🙂
I liked effortlessly buoyant the best. Loved the shot of you. No contest. 🙂
I am so photogenic . Not.
[…] . Now we wait until September to see what the People’s Choice will be. My previous posts here and here show the first […]
[…] opinion, has been the Sculpture Walk that they have installed this year. I blogged about it here and here and here! It took me 3 posts to show them all and many of you commented on the beauty […]