A Ticket, Four Stars and a Smiley Face

Today is one of those good Fall days that you never want to end. The air is a bit crisp, but the sun is shining bright. Chicago-ans are happy for the break in the dreary bad Fall days we have been having. Couple that with it being a Friday and you understand why I am in a great mood!

I am lucky enough to be working from home today and had time to go on a long walk for my exercise. Just as I was enjoying not being connected, I noticed the big orange envelop on my windshield. Street cleaning strikes again. Grr. Another win for the city of Chicago. I hope that $50 ticket replaces a pothole somewhere. Oh well, it's my own fault and still sunny!

Later in the day after some appointments I went to check on my sculpture, Position, and make sure the coating is weathering well with all the rain we've had. It's been a month or so since I've checked on it. It looked to be doing great from my car, but upon closer inspection I noticed four stars and one smiley face scratched in the surface of the coating. It looks like it was done by a child since it was only about four feet from the ground and didn't scratch through all the layers of paint.

At first I felt a little sad, but then I decided I'm lucky it wasn't vandalized in a more hateful way. I don't think the hand that did this was really trying to do a bad thing. I don't think they were trying to make a statement. I think they were just playing and that is OK because I have more paint. I say I want my art to engage the viewer and it moved someone to enough to involve it in their play time, so I can be happy with that. However, if you ever see someone vandalizing public art, please say something and/or alert the city/artist so they can repair it.

If I want my art to be public art then I will no doubt have many more experiences like this. I can only hope that in the future my art will earn four stars and a smiley face!