Whenever I have someone else in the car and I pass by I always point out this Diesel Locomotive sculpture out on the west side (I mean, of course I do, I love trains). Anyways, If your’e headed west on Michigan through Haughville you will see it on your left after you pass the giant “Welcome” mural. It sits in a triangle shaped plot of land thats diced up by railroad tracks. I assumed it was owned by CSX, which would be interesting, because from what I’ve heard they aren’t much into helping out with public art projects… If they can help it, that is. ;)
I love this work of art and I feel like I have a small connection to it since it was a good friend Dano Jones and company who originally built and installed it. That company would later become Circle City Metalworks in 2020.
As much as I love well done graffiti, thats how much I despise poorly done and inappropriately placed graffiti.
TLDR version: it got tagged.
This isn’t my first rodeo, Ive cleaned up some whack sprays before. So I grabbed the goo gone and a wire brush from my spot and headed west. I thought it would come right off, but geez I spent like a half hour before I realized it wasn’t ever going to look right. Goo gone works pretty well on cheap spray paint with a nonporous surface. For todays project, it wasn’t cutting it.
Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. I went back home and got spray paint and supplies. I tried a myriad of different coppers, bronzes, browns, and finally landed on rustoleum burnt orange. Knowing that the sculpture will probably never be a solid color again, I tried to give it a bit of a “weathered” look. It’s certainly not perfect but I think it looks a little better than it did. Hopefully over time the in the elements it will look a lot more natural.
I asked Dano Jones (Artist, Craftsman, Metalworker and Business Owner) from Circle City Metalworks about working on this project and here is what he had to say:
“We built it over 3 months in 2015 and installed it on Christmas eve. The concept and funding were done by Keep Indianapolis Beautiful. It is 11 feet tall and 9 feet wide and weighs about 3500 pounds . We used a local crane company to transport it and set it into place. There was 100s of hours in welding and grinding. The material is ‘Corten’ which is a type of steel that supposed to rust on the surface but not pit or rot. It’s sometimes referred to as artist steel. The biggest challenges were just the weight and over all size”.
Since Dano informed me that Kibi was the creator and funding source, I thought I would see if I could get in contact about mowing the lawn and a general clean up. So, I went to their website and ended up ‘requesting to organize a neighborhood clean up’ at Michigan an Holmes. I didn’t even know you could do that. How freakin’ cool is Keep Indianapolis Beautiful. Amazing. Well… looks like I should have some further news in 5 to 7 business days. Peace.
Author: Ryan Mullin
I Love the city of Indianapolis. Art, real estate, small biz and model trains. :)