Friday, January 9, 2015

Flipping Coins And Flapping Wings On Abbot Kinney

I returned back to Venice to discover two new public art pieces by Robin Murez of Venice Public Art up on Abbot Kinney Boulevard, adding to her ever-growing collection of works to honor our town's origins. My favorite has always been the Wheel Of Fortune at The Green House Smoke Shop, but these new ones are pretty great too.

If you pass by the Alternative Apparel shop, you can stop and flip the coin, just like Abbot Kinney did to win his piece of swamp land that became our beloved Venice.

The explanation part is already pretty sun-bleached or something, but you can kind of read the story of how Abbot Kinney won his land in a coin toss. He chose the swampy part, which everyone thought was lame, but he had a vision and a dream and he made Venice. So there.


A short amble up the block and you can flap the wings of the Winged Lion in front of the Roots (chain) store. The Winged Lion is a symbol of "The Republic Of Venice" (which we like to call The PEOPLE'S Republic Of Venice), and we should all pause to reflect and give a flap to acknowledge his splendor.


They tell you a little about that too, if you squint real hard. The plaque encourages you to flap the wings and "Cheer, Bravo!" So of course I did to start my this morning.


That's also exactly my cheer for these wonderful reminders, both of our past, and to preserve the specialness of wonderful Venice ... BRAVO!

There is now a MAP of the Venice Public Art pieces so that you can take yourself on a little walking tour of fun and learning. BRAVO again!





3 comments:

  1. Yay, Carol! I love your take on these. The signs are temporary - soon to be replaced by more legible stainless steel. Glad you got it, though. And thank you for spreading the love. Flap those wings and cheer Bravo for the creativity of The (Peoples) Republic of Venice!

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  2. Very interesting and cool!!!

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  3. I've just recently been able to spend a lot more time in Venice having moved back to the Westside from a 3 year banishment to NoHo/Burbank. I've really enjoyed finding these sculptures. Sadly the coin is looking a little worse for wear these days. I took a video of it just the other day and uploaded it here: https://youtu.be/O9yw94UbXh8

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