Day 9: Kelpies? In Chicago!?

     Imagine if you will, that it is the summertime.  You walk out of the Shedd Aquarium and want to go to Navy Pier.  So, you walk over to the dock for the Shoreline water taxi.  As you walk over there, you see two horse's heads on pedestals on a grassy area.  You think to yourself "What the heck is that?"  That, my dear reader, is what today's entry is about.  The statue itself is called The Kelpies, and they were built by Scotsman Andy Scott.  It is quite the interesting design. 
    
     First off, a little background: the kelpie is a mythological sea monster with the head of a horse.  So, this sculpture features two Kelpie heads seemingly rearing out of the water.  You can see this clearer on the picture, but if you look closely at one of the Kelpies, you can see a small human figure standing in what appears to be either awe or terror at the emerging Kelpie(my money is on terror).  It really is quite entertaining to look at, but it gets really interesting when you consider this.  The models in Chicago are just that: models. The sculptor is in the process of building full-size Kelpies in Scotland. These statues will be straddling a canal in a new art park being planned, and each one will be 100 feet tall. So this is what that means: remember that little figure standing in terror on one of the Kelpie statues?  That was built to scale.  According to the Website, the full-size Kelpie statues should be installed in their permanent homes sometime in the beginning of 2013.  After that, you can see the real ones for yourself.  One more thing: the scale models are in Chicago as part of the Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition(you know, the same thing that yesterday's sculpture was here for).  That about does it for today.  See you tomorrow!