Musical Sculpture

I have not lived in Normal, Illinois for a long time. I have been to Uptown at least three to four times without noticing some very interesting aspects of the town. I always notice the window displays or the various advertisements posted on the windows and walls of the buildings. My point is I was only paying attention to the stores and the items I could purchase, without noticing the uniqueness of Uptown. We all notice the theatre with the flashing lights at night that plays old movies, and the colorful mural on the side of the building. However, I just happened to discover this piece of artwork when I glanced up by chance while I was waiting for a friend to tell me what street we were currently on.

When I took this photograph, I did not take a picture of the entire structure. I decided to focus on only one aspect of the piece. Thus, looking at the photo I took, you will notice that I took it at an angle. The artwork was much higher than me so instead of backing up far enough to take a picture of the entire piece, I focused in on the left side. Thus, when I first glance at the picture, my eyes focus on the middle of the photo, then my eyes focus of the right side of the picture, which is where the artwork branches off into more recognizable pieces. Most of the metal material is in the middle, so the eyes will tend to primarily focus on the center. Eventually your eyes will notice that the right side holds a musical instrument and tree branches with leaves on them.

In addition to what your eyes may focus on, the light and dark shadows in the image also play a role in the photo. Although I took the picture around 2:30 P.M., when the sun was still out, the light only hit certain places on the object. The light hits random spots on the object and its extensions, which allows for highlighting of the middle and part of the top of the sculpture. The dark shadows tend to lay more so on the right side of the photograph, but overall the image is mostly dark because it was located in between two buildings (an ice cream shop and a coffee shop) on Beaufort Street in Uptown, Normal.

Most of the object is located in the foreground aside from the pillar it rests on. As for the background of the picture, the sky is in view as well as the two buildings that surround the art work. Most of the object is sharply in focus, nothing is blurry, but the object takes up most of the picture. As for the audience of this image, they would view it as a creative piece of artwork, but they would be flabbergasted of the location. Why is this located next to an ice cream shop? Well I would say it is just adding a little culture to the Uptown area. --Melissa Polovitch