Friday, March 20, 2009

Planetary Granary

Is that right? Are these grain silos? I think so. Hey, give me a break, I grew up in California. I think they're even owned by ADM, that huge agro company that sponsors public radio a lot. Anyway, these are along the same road as the train yard (makes sense, no?), and I love them. The range of imagery in this artwork is really interesting, and the artist did so much with only a few colors.


Oh, and thank you very much for my lovely composition skills that allowed the word "cookies" to show on the bottom left (you'll have to click on the picture to see the larger version). There is a coffee shop there with a cookie shop inside. They're really good, too. And she always gives you a free sample cookie. Like, a WHOLE cookie, not just a cut up crumb as big as your pinky.

Aha! I have been informed that these are grain ELEVATORS (thank you, Jilly). Who knew grain needed elevators? Why can't they take the stairs? And yes, Chris, this was a commissioned artwork, one of the largest in the Twin Cities, it turns out.

4 comments:

Chris said...

I didn't know these were grain silos! But the point is, are you saying someone painted this? Like, they tagged the building? Or is it a commissioned installation? This is amazing!

Cookies. I wouldn't mind some now.

Jilly said...

Grain elevators. Like big grain silos, but with way more grain, and the grain is constantly moved through them, because if you have too much grain compacted into a big tube, it combusts.

Didn't grow up on the praries, but did grow up in a port town that shipped grain.

Sharon Parker said...

I used to live within a block of these, and I have been told, but haven't really checked it out, that on the summer solstice, at a certain time of the day, the shadows of the power lines fall exactly where they are painted here. Or something like that. It does look cool on late afternoon in summer when the shadows add their own decorative element to the whole composition.

Kat said...

I saw this and just had to add that I worked for Collingwood Grain for years and they became part of ADM and yes those are elevators. The grain is dumped from the farmers trucks into pits and then elevated in cups up to the top and dropped into the bins which are inside those tubes you are seeing. Can't say I've ever seen one painted like this before though.

Kat