Guitar Town Statues Round 2

Last June, my hometown of Waukesha, Wisconsin was named a Guitar Town by Gibson Guitars, since Les Paul, the inventor of the electric guitar, was born here and is buried here.  To celebrate the honor, many local artists created special guitar statues, some small, some 10-feet tall, which are now prominently displayed throughout the downtown area. 

While the festival to celebrate the unveiling of the larger statues was a lot of fun (please see the original post at http://artphotocraft.blogspot.com/2012/06/my-hometown-guitar-town.html to get the full story), it was very crowded.  In fact, I hadn't seen that many people in downtown Waukesha since we helped celebrate Harley Davidson's 100th anniversary.  This made getting prime photographs tough.  So I went around town and took some better photographs of some of the statues in their new homes. 

The first statue, above, was designed by Ramona Audley and is located in front of First Federal Bank on Wisconsin Avenue.  To see more of her work, visit http://www.gallery1art.com/Ramona.html.

The guitar above, featuring the face of Carlos Santana, was designed by Ben Stark, and is located near the Fox Riverwalk in front of Waukesha State Bank. 

This beautiful guitar, featuring a hummingbird, was designed by Marcia Schneider, and it has a very high-profile place in the middle of downtown's restaurant district.  To see more of Marcia's work, visit http://www.almontgallery.org/artists_mschneider.htm.

This guitar with the tiger was designed by Gene Evans of Milwaukee.  It also has a high-profile spot located in front of the Waukesha Historical Society on Main Street.

I have included a few more of the guitars from the June festival, since I thought these were really nicely done by the arists.  The one above was designed by Bill Reid.  To see more of Bill's work, visit
http://www.toryfolliard.com/sculpture/Bill-Reid.shtml. 

This guitar was one of my favorites, designed by Jennifer Espenscheid.  To see more of Jennifer's work, visit http://www.thesomagallery.com/.

The one above was designed by Chuck Weber, a well-known Waukesha artist who's work is featured at Almont Gallery downtown.  I loved this guitar so much, and the photo turned out so well (if I do say so myself), I framed it and it is hanging in my living room.  To see more of Chuck's work, visit http://weberportraits.com/.

I am still in awe of these artists' work even after nearly 3 months of seeing them on my city's street corners.  And these were just the tip of it.  In addition to the 10 large guitars, there are 17 standard-size Les Paul Gibson guitars on display throughout downtown featuring more hand-picked artists' work.  To get a full list of guitars and where to see them, go to http://www.waukeshaguitartown.com/.