Squirrel, bird feeder

Parma, O.

Erin's lasses go braless

Okay, this is not the name of the store, but i like the sign. Now in Cleveland and its 'burbs, there are not many store windows left. In Lakewood this particular one has five female dummies and from season to holiday they sport some racy clothing. It is March, so it is Paddy's day they're dressing for. As porch geese have their calendraic outfits, so do these faux gals.

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right

Alice in the library

 Andrew Karoly and Louis Szanto. Scenes of Alice in Wonderland. Shaker Heights. 1960.

This wonderful painting is in the Children's Room of the Shaker Heights Library. Karoly and Szanto's mural work in Cleveland was mostly done for Society Bank, including a continuation of Walter Crane's work on the Public Square building.

other local library art [click], and tag below

auto parts sign

 on Denison near Pearl intersection. Cleveland, Ohio. 12/24/12 and 2/19/13

the painter needs to practice faces

tire burying ground

Cleveland was once the fifth most populated city in the country, and had only three or so adjacent suburbs of  more than small population; yet, the city had woods. Cleveland was the 'Forest City'. To-day there is still wooded acreage, some in public parks. In this little valley people disposed of tires.

Traymore Man

On Clifton in Lakewood Ohio there are apartments. One entrance is flanked with a pair of sculpted stone mediæval male heads, and another with mediæval female heads.

farming in Cleveland

 West 24th and Bridge. Cleveland, Ohio. 30 June 2010.

Don't kill your treasurer

Walter Crane. Goose that lays golden eggs. Cleveland. 1890.

“Call me not ‘fool’ till heaven hath sent me fortune”

Jaques in William Shakespeare's As You Like It, II.7.xix.

Ohio's first skyscraper was built in 1899, the red sandstone, ten storey Society for Savings Bank on Cleveland's Public Square. The English book illustrator, and painter, Walter Crane was hired to paint two scenes on the Goose that lays golden eggs. Crane was part of the English Arts and Crafts movement, along with William Morris (both were socialists).

The first scene the master is leading a motley bunch, with a professional fool. A girl carries a platter of golden eggs. They pass a tavern with a sign reading, “When Adam and Eve in Paradise”. A bare footed Eve is about to press a spade. Now, a female carries all the egg cells with her, and each one grows  and is then laid. The master is greedy, and wants all the eggs now. In the second scene the goose has been killed with a knife, and a regular egg has broken upon the ground revealing the yolk. Another tavern sign reads, “A bird in thy hand is worth two in the bush”. The second mural with the dead goose's Shakespeare inscription is, “Will Fortune never come with both hands full”. King Henry in Henry IV, Part 2, IV.4.ciii. 

Later, both Cleveland Trust, and Union Trust decorated their main lobbies with murals. Several government buildings also commissioned murals, and Roosevelt's New Deal furthered this public art. 

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes

 Cleveland, Ohio

“Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Cauta est et ab illis incipit uxor.” ― Decimus Junius Juvenalis

From Juvenal's Satire VI,  347–8. 

In 1986-7 there appeared Watchmen, a twelve issue comic book series in Britain, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. It was an alternate history, and criticism of Reaganism. In 2009 a movie version was released.

In the story there is a police strike, and the costumed heroes take their place. This graffito is repeated. It is still a good political question.

on the innerbelt bridge