The Honoured Walleye

Articles on manhole covers keep on popping-up. More and more people are noticing the design underfoot as they walk their city streets. 

Rob Turner writes on the subject of cities much smaller projects that make a big impact in his “Cover Art” article.

“As a visitor to a new city I’m always intrigued to discover and surprised by fantastic cast-iron works of art—they delight me.” 

This article lists wonderful photos of "manhole covers that left their mark in New York City". 

Andy Sturdevant lists stunning manhole cover designs in Minneapolis in his article “Minneapolis' sense of itself revealed in artist-designed manhole covers.” Andy helps us discover the reason for the covers by describing them and their location in Minneapolis. Andy directs us to a few of Kate Burke’s manhole cover designs. 

I received a wonderful email with a nice surprise this week, a sequence of photos showing the steps in the creation of Kate’s walleye manhole cover design. 

Have you ever wondered why you didn’t bring that darn camera with you? Kate wished she had a camera to document her first experience at the foundry eight inches deep in black sand staring at the wheel-a-matic sandblaster. 

We can’t turn back time and document those fantastic moments of creation, but we can remember them as did Kate.

It was a sandblasting booth that had a huge turntable inside a metal box. As I stood in the sand, the guys opened the door to the first cast manhole cover, which was the walleye. As the turntable rotated the silhouette of the cover [emerged] out of the darkness. It was glowing red in the center as they had just cast it and it was still hot. It was jaw-dropping. 

Below is Kate Burke's production process for the Walleye manhole cover for Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis: 

© 2016 Kate Burke, a quick sketch to help with the design process

© 2016 Kate Burke, the sketch created for the carving of the design

© 2016 Kate Burke, the actual drawing used to cut the design—many copies were made to prevent the loss of image detail when transferring the drawing 

© 2016 Kate Burke, these recent photos of the finished cut pattern show its resilience after two dozen casts. It held up well and is still beautiful 

© 2016 Kate Burke, altered photo of the original photo by Will Crain, manhole cover installed at Nicollet Mall

© 2016 Kate Burke, a rubbing from the original pattern above to create prints

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Need to get back to work and finish eleven new volumes of City Shields from my trip back to Canada. My residence and installation at Ming Studios will come soon enough.

In the meantime, go for a walk and discover your city.

© 2016 Kate Burke, installed Walleye manhole cover at Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Hail Minnesota!

I was downtown Ottawa, to deliver my volumes of City Shields to the National Gallery of Canada this summer when I noticed a manhole cover with a toilet in its design on Sussex Drive.

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, this photo is an Ottawa maintenance frame S25 and toilet logo cover S24

Ever wonder what or why sewer covers have certain designs like a toilet? I wonder as well! 

The city of Ottawa, Ontario, has several manhole covers with a fish design. Evan Thornton in his article The Sign Of The Fish: Ottawa Sewer Grates of December 2009 found that Ottawa, lets its residents figure out the significance of the decorated storm sewer drains for themselves.

I guess we will not easily have an answer to our question.

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When one has access to the artist who designs the covers for a city, we can get an answer to the reason behind the designs?

Kate Burke designed manhole covers for the City of Minneapolis back in 1992. These manhole covers were part of 75 cast iron manhole covers created as one of seven other art projects for the Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Kate explains the development of Hail Minnesota installed before computers and digital cameras!  

I worked with Craig Amundson from BRW Architects to evolve the ideas and designs.  As the first ones he chose not only had a natural theme but were, also, state symbols. I evolved further designs from there. I designed for the state bird, tree, flower, grain, etc. In the end I titled the project with the state motto, “Hail Minnesota”.

It took at least a month to create each hand cut pattern. I evolved a unique technique of layering chip board to create detail and to guarantee a flat surface for a safe footfall. There are eleven different designs with each pattern cast seven times.

The City of Minneapolis is redeveloping Nicollet Mall, the location of Kate Burke’s designed manhole covers. Architect James Corner hired for the redesign, is the architec who designed the High Line, a beloved project in NYC. To prepare for this complete redevelopment the city assessed and archived the eight artworks originally installed. The manhole covers rated well and people enjoy them. Their condition and maintenance care are easy.

To view these fantastic cover designs in person, one will have to wait for the covers to be removed from storage and reinstalled when the Mall is rededicated in the future. Millions of people pass over Nicollet Mall yearly, but ME, Louise, never knew of them when I visited Minneapolis, two years ago. It is worthwhile to call a city before visiting and asking questions on the project you might be doing.

Take a look at these stupéfiant (amazing) manhole covers!

© 2016 photos by Will Crain, graphics by Michelle Ward, Hail Minnesota design by Kate Burke—image 1 APPLES and detail; image 2 NORWAY PINE and detail; image 3 TIMBER WOLF and detail; image 4 LOON and detail

© 2016 photos by Will Crain, graphics by Michelle Ward, Hail Minnesota design by Kate Burke—image 1 WILD RICE and detail; image 2 WHEAT and detail; image 3 CORN and detail; image 4 LADY SLIPPER and detail

© 2016 photos by Will Crain, graphics by Michelle Ward, Hail Minnesota design by Kate Burke—image 1 OATS and detail; image 2 WALLEYE and detail; 4 NORTHERN PIKE and detail

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Last April, I introduced large sized artists’ books, included in these posts was Alex Appella’s book, The János Book. 

This year, Alex had a lovely experience publishing her book as a Spanish independent trade edition in Argentina. The János Letter / Después la carta sells for the low price of $39.99. The János Book is available on Amazon, with good reviews. Enjoy a free PDF of this book!

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Are you getting ready for Christmas? Are you looking for beautiful and unique decorative boxes to offer someone special? Look no further. My decorative boxes are a great gift for anyone who loves to store small items, special trinkets, keepsakes or jewelry.

For the purchase of my hand made boxes visit my website or email me directly.

Have a great week!

Congratulations!

This week, I’m sending my congratulations to Cathryn Miller and Thomas Parker Williams for their participation in the Pop-Up Now II exhibition on view through December 17 at 23 Sandy Gallery. 

Pop-Up Now II, is a juried exhibition of pop-up and movable artists’ books that pop-up, move, slide, twirl, whirl, and even light up.

Cathryn submitted her book entitled I Love My Love. The book is just beautiful!!

© 2016 Cathry Miller

Thomas, surprises us all with a fantastic sculpture in paper and steel, entitled Spiral Dome. This is worth a closer view online.

© 2016 Thomas Parker Williams

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It’s so easy to go down the rabbit hole when researching “stuff” on the internet! Obsessed with the Incessant Journey lately—for the last 16 years. I found articles on the web that conveyed information on the manhole cover I thought would be of interest to those of you whom have never looked down to the streets.

A fun article by Andrew Emond who has explored the underground systems of Montréal and Toronto, Canada. Andrew put together a guide for the most common manhole covers in Montréal in his article "Everything You Probably Never Cared To Know About Manhole Covers."

Another article that caught my eye was by Andrew Guilbert entitled “The Art of Calgary's Manholes.”  Andrew gives us a glimpse of history, new manhole covers and call to artists. Calgary's manhole covers are some of the most prevalent artworks in the city, says Andrew.

Abraham Piper’s article “Misplaced manhole covers to drive you crazy”, might be disturbing for all obsessive compulsive driven people. The photos were a good laugh for me, I often wonder—”Why, two more minutes!” It only takes two more minutes to reposition the manhole covers properly. Do these photographs force you to cringe?

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Now, I’m pump-up to create eight new volumes of manhole covers I photographed on my trip across Canada...

Discovering!

I’m in a conundrum these days! Do I continue my art work or prepare the next 10 years of my life. In, the meantime, my project The incessant Journey is as you have noticed taken over my life. Just like an obsession that won’t let go. Manhole covers are up and down and all around me. 

I’m discovering more and more artists who create using manhole covers as their muse. I received an email from Will Karp who occupies most of his time photographing and creating art with photographs of manhole covers.

Similar to my preocupation, Will has collected hundreds of images of manhole covers on his travels from the American Southwest to the Middle East. 

Awarded first prize at the Santa Fe Arts Commission in 2011, his composition of "Manhole Covers of Santa Fe” heightened his passion for manhole cover art.

I continue to wonder who’s behind the designs of manhole covers with intricate three dimensional motifs comprising of grids, concentric arcs and circles, cross hatching, insignias, and other geometric shapes. The multitude and variety of designs produced is staggering. Not only do the covers themselves offer an eyeful, but the colors and textures of the surrounding pavement whether pebbles, bricks, cobblestones, grass, dirt or asphalt, create a unique canvas for each cover.

Different mediums including book arts, printmaking, magnets, posters, and large installations are used in Will’s work. His latest creation is a book entitled Manhole Mania, A Tribute To Ground Art. 

Will, hopes that each set of pages that unfolds reveal a refreshing way to appreciate and see the artfulness of utility covers that are right under our feet for us to enjoy, if only we knew it.

© 2016 Will Karp, compositions using 16 photos of New Mexico

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Searching through the internet for others with a penchant towards the ground, I have found other artists who design intricate manhole covers for their cities.

Nancy Blum designed the City Light, City Bright manhole cover in 2001, in which the flowers represent the city and the electric pattern in the background represent the utility side of manhole covers.

© 2016 Nancy Blum, City Light, City Bright

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In 1990 The City of Minneapolis reached out in the artist community to create artwork for Nicollet Mall in Downtown Minneapolis. 

Kate Burke commissioned by the city to create manhole covers designs to replace the covers over 13 city blocks around the Nicollet Mall. There are 11 different designs which commemorate the state designations and other icons of the state. Included are the state flower, fish, tree, bird, grain, fruit; and the grains. These manhole covers are absolutely gorgeous. They are a must see. I hope I can go trough Minneapolis again and add these to a second volume of Minnesota.

An in-depth dialogue with Kate will be part of another post later in the year.

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Continuing with my conundrum, I need to figure out what to do with my life—an incessant journey on its own. Time goes by fast and work is slow these days, I need to get back to what is important. The first issue is to get my printers working after 3 months off. Wish me luck and hope you find your own purpose in life, go DO.

Back Home

I’m back!

Winter is just around the corner—I know, I know Ottawa, Ontario, Canada has it worse—I have the impression that Fall is colder than last year in Idaho. When I left Ottawa, the leaves were in full colour and the rain kept on coming. Here in Idaho the colours of the leaves are still stunning and has extended my Autumn experience.

I spent time with my dear friend Vera Greenwood, a fantastic writer who captivates your interest. Vera has successful exhibition installations under her belt.

Vera’s art practice is subjectively personal with an emphasis on storytelling, while observing the world. Her work is highly autobiographical, revealing a keen interest in recordkeeping and investigative research. Because her installations have always incorporated text—sometimes large amounts—bookworks have become a logical extension of Vera’s art practice. 

© 2011 Vera Greenwood, cover of her book "The Whole Enchilada, My Madcap Mexican Adventure," a terrific read

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I visited the small studio of Mary Kritz, an Ottawa based artist who works with paper products to construct hand bound books and boxes. Inspired by nature, architecture, and art, Mary creates personal moments with rules and omissions, exploration and play.

© 2016 Mary Kritz

Her book arts are notable for their unique finishes and tactile nature. This is of great importance and bears witness to well-developed artistic craftsmanship. Mary focuses on learned techniques and a wide range of materials to create her books.

© 2016 Mary Kritz

© 2016 Mary Kritz

© 2016 Mary Kritz

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I vacationed at my brother’s cottage with our new T@B trailer. I was eager to visit more studios but playing Bocce Ball and drinking wine enticed me to stay in the country with no worries to disturb happy hour.

I walked the streets of Ottawa and photographed new manhole covers. I discovered new cover designs while delivering 14 new volumes of City Shields to my contact at the National Gallery of Canada library. Here are my new volumes ready for cataloguing and join the other 52 volumes collected by the library.

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, new volumes of City Shields

In 2008, Gatineau launched a manhole cover design contest called Reg'art d'égout (artful covers) that involved designing two manhole cover models for the city's streets. These two manhole covers are part of Vol 3: No 10 Gatineau, Québec (secteur Gatineau) volume of City Shields published in 2009. To purchase this volume, please visit my website.

It is difficult to choose a favourite they are both a delight to view. These decorative manhole covers adorn most streets of Gatineau.

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, Une vie, Une ville (A life, A city)

© 2016 Louise Levergneux

Topaz, my studio resident dog needs a walk, I need to finish the laundry, carry out maintenance on our T@B, and make supper—the only imaginative activity today except for this blog post.

Talk to you next week and in the meantime check out the manhole covers of your city...

Fun, Fun, Fun

Still on holiday and time is going by fast. Friends and family to visit, shopping and of course searching for new manhole covers of home. Work never stops!

Ottawa has changed and has new manhole covers. I’m looking forward to walk the streets and photograph manhole covers of the city. I hope I can collect enough to create another province of Québec and Ontario volume. Will see! 

During our trip, between the rain and fog, this older Cranbrook City, BC, manhole cover did not miss on type size.

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, BC manhole cover

The best manhole cover design of our trip is the “Chinook” sewer manhole cover in the City of Calgary, AL. Yes, it comes close in rating to the Rodeo Cowboy! This “stupéfiant” amazing manhole cover was designed by the late artist Garry Williams in 2002.

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, Alberta manhole cover

Drumheller, Alberta, is the heart of the Canadian Badlands and is widely recognized as “Dinosaur Capital of the World." The World's Largest Dinosaur (86 ft/25 meters) built as a Millennium Project by the Drumheller & District Chamber of Commerce. Look at the photo and check out the size of our small camper. Drumheller also has a pleasing manhole cover.

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, Dinosaur Valley

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, Alberta manhole cover

Before leaving Saskatchewan, I asked Cathryn Miller to show me how to create a Chinese Lucky tar. This star will be added to the thousands of stars waiting to be part of her next project—an installation of wishing stars in the form of a walking contemplation labyrinth. Please help Cathryn by making wishes. Click here to leave her a wish.

Our next stop the City of Regina had quite the excellent manhole cover design.

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, Saskatchewan manhole cover

I’m interested in plain designed manhole covers like this one in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, Manitoba manhole cover

What an asymmetric design in Terrance Bay, Ontario.

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, Ontario manhole cover

Having fun, fun, fun, talk soon!

The Journey Back Home

Wondered where I was, getting lonely? Traveling has it’s challenges and finding good connections to the internet isn’t easy. I enjoyed going across the country via the Trans-Canada Highway for the first time.

We left home in Boise, Idaho, on a sunny day, traversed mountains and valleys where the rain and cold started.

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, driving in the northern parts of Idaho

When we traversed into Canada I felt my feet planted firmly home. 

This is our first experience RV’ing, and it has its own challenges. Gas, electricity, battery, hooked up or not... What to do when parking the first night...  What’s the last step before departing in the morning? We did not see the sun often on this trip. It’s been pouring rain almost every day. The countryside is amazing, and each province has its own beauty. 

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, travelling in our T@B Camper

The second morning we woke up to the views of the fog-filled mountains in British Columbia. It was cold and damp. I collected enough manhole covers throughout the province to create the first volume of BC. I would love to make a trip to Vancouver to place it on my map of City Shields.

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, wonderful British Columbia

The week before my departure, I communicated with the City of Calgary to find the location of the “Chinook” designed manhole cover. Randy Niessen at the Public Art Program in Calgary gave me streets and intersections where I could find the manhole covers I was looking for. I visited the office of Ivan Ostapenko, an architect who is designing a new manhole cover for the City of Calgary. While walking the grounds of the Calgary Stampede, a security attendant gave me a golf cart ride to find the manhole cover I was so excited to find. He drove me around till we found the rodeo cowboy! What a day!

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, Calgary, manhole cover found on the grounds of the Calgary Stampede

In Saskatchewan we were plagued with mosquitoes! I visited Cathryn Miller’s studio. 

© 2016 Louise Levergneux in Cathryn's studio, love the equipment!

Cathryn is the only professional artists’ book maker in Saskatoon. Cathryn and her husband David were generous with their time and stories. This was a fantastic visit. We talked about artists’ books, our past, our work, and where we have lived. Cathryn gifted me her Thank Your Lucky Stars multiple which I have been admiring from afar.

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, Cathryn has folder over 60,000 of these wonderful stars over the past 3 years. Her studio had three bins of these wonderful stars.

I always wondered why Cathryn had recipes as part of her blog posts. The reason is the biggest vegetable garden I have ever seen. They shared tomatoes, cucumbers, corn and the juiciest plums, yum! We dry camped on their 19 acres of land, it was the best night sleep of the whole trip. The last morning we drive through Saskatoon and found approximetly 28 manhole covers. One more volume to the series.

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, Cathryn's vegetables and plums were delicious!

Manitoba produced flatness, more rain and lightning. The rain lifted enough for me to run out of the car street after street to photograph more manhole covers.

The Incessant Journey continues throughout Ontario! It’s humid! I had forgotten how humid Ontario gets in August when the rain starts. We don’t have monsoons but we have a wave of humidity. Topaz fluffed up like a fur ball.

Home and camera full of wonderful photos of new manhole covers. Now the work begins again. I will take a few weeks to visit with friends and family. My posts might be erratic but will communicate my journey.

Enjoy your week. What’s your story? Where do you come from? Where are you going? Who has helped you find something lately?

En Route

Life inspires art, life interrupts the flow of creativity! 

With a list of tasks getting longer, I wondered if I could finish my new volumes of City Shields before I left. I finally published three copies of my last 14 artists’ books of different US states.

© 2016 Louise Levergneux

These copies will be part of my installation at MING Studios next March 2017.

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I’m leaving tomorrow on a 10 day journey back home. This excites me, I need to be reunited and reconnected to my roots. Living away from my home-home is difficult. Assimilated into the English language at a young age, I never thought being French was SO apparent. Here in the US, my cultural background seems more and more unmistakable.

I’m nervous to leave my home here in Idaho, since this séjour in Canada will stop production.

My husband, Michael, our little Sheltie, Topaz and I have traversed the US states to reach home in Gatineau, Québec for the last seven years. This year we are taking the Trans Canada Highway across to the Eastern part of the country. This will give me the opportunity to add Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and other cities in Ontario to my list of volumes for City Shields. I’m looking forward to these additions.

I contacted the City of Calgary and received the list of areas where I will find wonderful manhole cover designs.

Any of you live or travelled though these provinces? Please let me know where the fabulous manhole covers are located. I will photograph from August 10th to August 19th. 

Cathryn Miller is searching for me in Saskatoon. If you find a “must have” manhole cover in your neighbourhood, please let me know.

Here is what I will miss of my home in Idaho:

• MING Studios

• my small comfy studio

• the freedom my equipment gives me

• creating books, and

• Michael, as he returns to Idaho the last week of August

What I have missed of back home in Québec:

• French family and friends

• French language

• French fries

• French desert...

You noticed from my ridiculous list my roots are on my mind!

Even our profanity is pure and made up of everyday Catholic terminology. My bro is really good at it, so was my father. Most people don’t believe my explanation of how the Québecois swear. They often use sacres in their sentences, it’s part of the content. Here is a link to an article explaining a funny part of my culture. Dan Nosowitz writes on Québec's swearing vocabulary being one of the most entertaining in the entire world in his article “The Delightful Perversity of Québec's Catholic Swears." The Canadian province has expletives like no other”.

You’ll love and be amused by this article. It might help understand us a little better or not!

A mailbox with Québec French that roughly translates to "No fucking admail". (Photo: Gates of Ale/CC BY-SA 3.0)

What is not to love about Québec? Les maudites taxes!! Hey, it’s home. I miss the colourful French Canadians. 

I’m on my way back.