Eye Awl Ways Try Toe Please The Eye
After checking out Steel's Umbra post earlier today asking for more modern-looking structures downtown I recalled a painting that I had seen days earlier at the Historical Society. The painting also graced the back cover of a coffee table book called, 'Buffalo - Lake City in Niagara Land.' It was a hard painting to forget due to the carnival-like building that was the focal point of the image. The caption found on the back of the book read, "Joseph Joseph's painting of his own "Elephant Joe's Sign Shop" commemorates the opening in 1869 of this popular local character's sign-painting establishment."
I wonder what the public thought of this over-the-top marketing campaign. Had anyone ever seen anything like it before this? Hmmm... I betcha that the kids in the neighborhood flocked to the place to see the bizarre sight. There are riddles on the building that need to be deciphered, like the one on the top left that features (from top to bottom) an eye, an awl, the word 'ways', the word 'try', a toe, the word 'please', the word 'the', and another eye. The message should read, "I always try to please the eye". These riddles can be seen all over the storefront. An interactive building? Pretty cool if you ask me. The characters on top of the roof are really neat too. Not only did Joe put his sign-making skills to good use, he captured the imagination of his fellow Buffalonians (and probably offended some too) way back in 1869. I'll tell you one thing... if I had been looking for a sign back then I know exactly where I would have gone to find one.
Wouldn't it be nice to see this painting recreated somewhere in the city? Like on the side of some old brick building that is need of attention?
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SilentMajority
Seeing things like this make me wonder what it must have been like to live back in those days.. when such creativity was rewarded and praised rather than questioned and brought before goverment forums and village association meetings. The only place I could ever see anything like this happening today would be Allentown... maybe. Could you imagine this being brought before the Amherst town board? You'd be laughed right out the meeting. Such a shame. I remember walking past Home of the Hits one day... and it dawning on me "Hey, there's a record store in that house". I have to think that had the facade been covered in Vinyl records... I may have noticed it sometime sooner!
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SilentMajority
Seeing things like this make me wonder what it must have been like to live back in those days.. when such creativity was rewarded and praised rather than questioned and brought before goverment forums and village association meetings. The only place I could ever see anything like this happening today would be Allentown... maybe. Could you imagine this being brought before the Amherst town board? You'd be laughed right out of the meeting. Such a shame. I remember walking past Home of the Hits one day... and it dawning on me "Hey, there's a record store in that house". I have to think that had the facade been covered in Vinyl records... I may have noticed it sometime sooner!
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RaChaCha
I also remember this picture from 'Lake City in Niagara Land' - which BTW is a gem of an overview of Buffalo history with a great collection of memorable images. This building brings to mind the 'tilting house' on South Putnam (http://artvoice.com/issues/v6n15/open_house) - another building turned into a stand-out (and uniquely Buffalo) work of art.
It would be a cool and undeniably eye-pleasing project to recreate - although as noted not necessarily an easy sell in 'awl' neighborhoods. One could also imagine a related project in an area with a large number of foreclosed/vacant homes being given to an arts group with the idea of not just rehabbing and reoccupying the buildings, but turning them into a cluster of slam-on-the-brakes eye-catching artwork.
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