Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Burls will be Burls
6th Avenue between Burnside and Ash Portland, OR According to the TriMet website: Burls Will be Burls, by Bruce Conkle, is a tribute to snowmen and to the forests of the Pacific Northwest. The cast bronze figures of Burls Will be Burls represent what might happen when a snowman melts and nourishes a living tree—water…
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Lee Kelly Fountain
Southwest 6th Avenue and Pine Street Portland, OR Oregon artist Lee Kelly, often referred to as “Oregon’s Sculptor” won an international competition to design this sculpture “Untitled.” In this work, water flows over several 20-foot-tall steel structures. Born in rural McCall in central Idaho, Kelly was raised near Riggins, Idaho. In the 1950s he graduated from what…
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Talos Number 2
Southwest 6th Avenue and Stark Portland, OR Titled Talos Number 2 this bronze sculpture is by James Lee Hanson. “Talos No. 2 is part of the Portland Transit Mall. It was completed during 1959–1977, and was funded by TriMet and the United States Department of Transportation. The abstract sculpture depicts Talos, the giant man of…
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California Grizzly
San Francisco Zoo In Front of the California Grizzly Exhibit This Grizzly sculpture is by Scientific Art Studio. From their website: We are designers, sculptors, painters, welders, builders, crafters, fabricators, and – above all – dreamers. We live to see the world through new eyes, to laugh and play like children, and to explore boldly…
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Bruton Sisters WPA Mural at the San Francisco Zoo
San Francisco Zoo Mother’s Building These murals, on the Mother’s Building at the San Francisco Zoo were WPA projects. They were done by three sisters: Esther Bruton, Helen Bruton and Margaret Bruton. Helen Bruton has murals in downtown San Francisco that you can read about here. Here is an excerpt explaining the sisters work on the…
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The Carved Tree of San Francisco Zoo
San Francisco Zoo In Front of the Mother’s House Lakeside This carved seat, surrounded by animals was done by Sean Eagleton, well known for his huge wood carvings on long dead trees. He prefers to call them “healing poles”. Shane feels that the huge healing poles, once planted at various points all over this earth…
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Gwynn Murrill at the San Francisco Zoo
San Francisco Zoo Sloat and The Great Highway Lakeside Cougar III by Gwynn Murrill Gwynn Murrill is a Los Angeles based artist who received her MFA from UCLA in 1972. Murrill has three sculptures at the San Francisco Zoo. Cougar III and Tiger 2 are at the front entryway and Hawk V is located at…
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Maternite
Jewish Senior Living Group Orignally known as Jewish Home of the Aged 120 Silver Avenue Excelsior District Ursula Malbin was born on April 12, 1917, in Berlin to Jewish parents, both doctors of medicine. While in Germany she worked as a cabinet-maker. In 1939, a few weeks before World War II, but after her family had…
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Native Sons of the Golden West
414 Mason Street Union Square The Native Sons of the Golden West Building on Mason street is an eight story, steel frame structure, with a highly ornamented façade of granite, terra cotta and brick. Around the two main entrances to the building are placed medallions of men associated with the discovery and settlement of California.…
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Hans Shiller Plaza
Corner of Peabody and Leland Visitation Valley Opening in March 2001, Hans Schiller Plaza was the first Visitacion Valley Greenway site to be completed. Construction was supervised by the Trust for Public Land with funding from the Columbia Foundation founded by the late Madeleine Haas Russell. The gift was made in memory of her friend…
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Tying One on for Big Game
Michael sculpted this for his father-in-law Cecil Mark, a big Bear Backer. Cecil was a natty dresser who always dressed to the nines for football games. Though the photograph does not show it well, there are little Cal bears on the tie. Michael was also proud of the fact that he caught the very small stomach…
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The Apple of My Eye
Michael H. Casey often did sculptures just for fun. They also would show his personality, as you can see by the half eaten apple. In this photograph is “Breezehead” one of his favorite cats. Michael was a cat person, and Breezehead, while not the brightest bulb, as you can tell by her name, gave him…
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Decorator’s Showcase
Palmer Weiss commissioned Michael H. Casey to design the base for the breakfast nook table she used in the 2010 Decorator’s Showcase. Palmer was a true professional and delight to work with, sadly many designers looking for a bargain on the table afterwards were not as professional. The table was originally sculpted in clay…
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Carved Plaster
Michael H. Casey worked to build this “Giacometti” lamp by building up wet plaster. After the shape was to his liking he spent hours and hours sanding the lamp to its final state. Michael had always been a big fan of the Gicometti brothers, and in fact, had the opportunity to repair an original, so…
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Hell Mouths
Various Locations I am not sure exactly when the hell mouth craze took off, but Michael H. Casey had four large projects that incorporated these commissioned sculptures. Bijan incorporated many of them in his Rodeo Drive store in 1999. They were used as shelving, and then there was one that served as a fireplace in…
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Vivande
670 Golden Gate San Francisco In 1993 Vivande Restaurant opened a second, larger and moral formal restaurant at 670 Golden Gate Avenue. They wanted to recreate the front door of the famous house designed by Federico Zuccaro in 1591 just of the Spanish Steps in Rome. Michael H. Casey, of course, put his own spin on…
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Selling the Sizzle not the Steak
Palace Court Subdivision Las Vegas Nevada Around 1996 Robert Symons hired Michael H. Casey Designs to manufacture 2 guard houses for Queensridge. This was a potential housing development in the Las Vegas Desert. Michael always said they were to sell the sizzle, not the steak, as there was nothing there at the time. The guard houses were…
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Hotel Pacific
300 Pacific Street Monterey, California Michael H. Casey sculpted these fountains for the Hotel Pacific in 1986. The joy of working on a beautiful hotel such as this is that you get to stay there while installing the fountains. It became the go to place to stay whenever we were in the Monterey area. Including…
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Parget
California State Capitol Parget was common throughout the California State Capitol, but like much work throughout the ages it was lost due to remodeling for new amenities such as electricity and air-conditioning, as well as adding desks and finding more space for an ever growing government. A painted fragment was found when workers removed a…
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Chimney Rock Winery
Chimney Rock Winery 5350 Silverado Trail Napa Valley, California 1989 This was our first big job as Michael H. Casey Designs. The winery, at the time was owned by Mr. and Mrs. Hack Wilson. The Wilson’s had been the Coca-Cola distributors in South Africa and they wanted to bring the Dutch-Cape style architecture of Mrs.…
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St. Mark and St. Matthew of Grace Cathedral
Grace Cathedral 1100 California Street San Francisco, California Michael H. Casey was honored to have been chosen to sculpt both Saint Mark and Saint Matthew for Grace Cathedral in 2001 – 2002. He always felt he was chosen due to the fact that he mentioned seismic stability during his interview. The sculptures were life sized, originally…
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Creatures in the Assembly
California State Capitol Assembly Chambers Artists that worked on the California State Capitol Restoration left little tidbits of themselves throughout the project. Michael H. Casey was no different. When installing the ornamentation that he had worked on in the Assembly he added a little creature that expressed his feelings about the goings on in the…
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Minerva
California State Capital Senate Chambers According to ancient Roman myth, the goddess Minerva was born fully grown. Just as Minerva was born fully grown, so California became a state without first having been a territory. Minerva’s image on the Great Seal symbolizes California’s direct rise to statehood. Minerva originally was in both chambers but…
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Necklace of Lights
Lake Merritt 468 Perkins Street Oakland, CA Originally shut down during World War II, the Necklace of Lights circling Lake Merritt fell into complete disrepair and remained non-functional for many years, The Lake Merritt Breakfast club started a campaign in the 1980’s to raise money to restore the iconic Necklace of Lights. Once the project…
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South Hall
South Hall University of California, Berkeley South Hall is the oldest extant building on the University of California campus. The entryway, originally in wood, was completely restored in GFRC (Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete) in 1996. The architect on the project was Irving Gonzales and the General Contractor was BBI. Michael H. Casey Designs was hired to completely…
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1940 Packard Building Comes Back to Life
865 The Alameda San Jose, California This photo shows the Packard Buidling in 1940. Notice the wonderful sculptural detailing over the windows and the doors. As often happened during the 1960’s and 1970’s many buildings were stripped of their ornamentation to reflect the modernism trend that was sweeping the country. In 2009 the engineering firm…
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Females Grace the Olympic Club
665 Sutter Street The Olympic Club Parking Garage Union Square I have showed you the figures at the front of the Olympic Club here. But at the back, the entry to the parking garage, are 9 female nudes. The sculptures are by Michelle Gregor. Michelle has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from University of California,…
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Ndebele
1601 Griffith Street BayView / Hunters Point This abstract sculpture composed of three vertical elements, is titled Ndebele and is by Fran Martin. It was installed in 1987. I have tried three times over many many months to find this piece. It is listed at the pump station but it is actually on the side…
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Heron’s Head Park
Heron’s Head Park Evans and Jennings Bay View / Hunter’s Point Heron’s Head Park was “born” in the early 1970s, when the Port began filling the bay to construct what was to be the Pier 98 shipping terminal. The terminal construction never materialized, and the peninsula remained undeveloped. Over years of settlement and exposure to…
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SFAC Shame on You
1351 24th Avenue Outer Sunset This travesty sits in front of the San Francisco Department of Public Health Building. The only photograph I could find was through the Smithsonian Institute. The sculpture, titled Sailor and Mermaid, originally was made of copper sheets, cut, pounded, and welded, with bronze. It sits on a concrete pad. It was…
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