Art

When I first came to Charlotteville, the first thing that struck me was “Holy Crap, you can’t drive in here!” After a couple of days, that feeling was entrenched and will never be gotten rid of. However, once you accept that the layout of the city was designed by someone who was inspired by Jackson Pollock, you start noticing other things when you’re driving…

…Like the giant pieces of art.

My parents and I were looking around down here when I noticed a piece of metal sticking out of the median along the 250 by-pass. “Is that a whale’s tail?” I asked. Why yes it is!

I feel that such a sculpture really captures the nature of the town, if that town happened to be some whaling community in New England. Unfortunately, this is in Charlottesville, where you’d have to go to Sea World to see a whale and you definitely wouldn’t see one with a tale like that!

From the website:

At the beginning of 2006, I was smitten by a calendar photograph of a sperm whale tail. I became obsessed with the image and decided to share my obsession with the rest of Charlottesville through ArtInPlace.

I'm glad that you decided to share your obsession with us. I'm glad your outlet for obsession has chosen a safe, money-wasting outlet as opposed to other alternatives.

The Tail is created from discarded wood, much of it harvested locally. The skin is cedar waste from a millwork shop. The base is comprised of branches and roots from a single Osage-orange tree.

Because that tree was far less useful than this giant whale fin in an inland town.

I really can't get over all of these sculptures. Some are ok, but others are just nuts. I'm sure I'll write about this some later day.

Driving

One of the things you notice when you come to Charlottesville is that none of the roads keep the same name. Honestly people, how hard is it to have streets maintain the same names for the entire length of their run.

You’re driving along, minding your own business, and all of a sudden, Emmet Street turns into Seminole Trail. Now, this isn’t that bad, because this is a huge, straight street. But it’s a symptom of the disease.

Anywhere you go, there’s a possibility of the street changing names on you when you cross an intersection (or at random if it feels like it). Often, this is at one of those 5-road crossing, where there are 3 roads coming together, one dead ending, and the other two leaving. How’re you ever supposed to figure this out on the fly if you’re unfamiliar?

Also, hurray for designing your roads based around paths that wildlife took. Those grid pattern streets just make it too easy to find your way around and don’t let tourists get lost in experience the culture of your town