Guerilla Art in Wilton Manors. The Story of the Little Ceramic Faces

I am very used to being around Art.  The rule of thumb in Philadelphia is that you had to spend 1% of building cost in public art for a commercial or industrial building.

Or thereabouts.   My memory may have drifted and I left Philly in 2006.

So Philly has some world class art floating around for you to enjoy simply by walking around.  The "LOVE" installation in Love Park in Center City, or that Rocky Statue that was at one point at the Art Museum come to mind.

Little bitty Wilton Manors is doing its best.  We've got the orange slices on Wilton Drive, and there are other installations like the Thunderbunny there as well.  I find it quite enjoyable.

But Guerilla Art?  Here in sleepy little Wilton?  You bet.

I don't mean the graffiti morons with stickers and spray paint.  I walk around the Central Business District four times a day.   Rack the McNab SuperDog(TM) requires the exercise and I get between 10,000 and 19,000 steps a day myself as a result.

I see the art.  Guerilla art.

Guerilla Art is not the Gorilla statue that was here for years.  I rather miss the thing, it was as tall as I am, and I am not a small man.  People used to crawl into its lap and take pictures.

Guerilla Art is unofficial art.  Think of "Yarn Bombing" where some dear person knitted a sweater.  For a mail box.  It's random and makes you pause and think.

So what is happening here?  Little Ceramic Faces.  Lately they are all over the place in a very specific neighborhood.  South side of Wilton Drive, and in the immediate blocks south of the Drive.  The faces are well done, and brightly colored.  Ceramic faces are left in places that are designed to be spotted.  For a while it was the painted stones that were done in many places where you find a palm sized stone painted with maybe a Daisy or other flower.

It later shifted to these faces. 

Some have magnets on the back, others are simply the face.  They are about as large as my thumbnail and I don't have tiny doll hands.

I will say that if I spot one with a magnet and it is in a public place I place it as high up on the pole where it is.  It makes it more discreet and hopefully it will remain there longer.

This isn't the graffiti stickers.  If you walk Wilton Drive, you will notice the south side of the drive has markedly fewer stickers.  (Raises hand) That is because I use my scraper knife to remove them when they are not "official" stickers like from the city/state. 

I probably should shift to the other side of the drive, there are an obscene amount of these stickers everywhere.

On the other hand, the little faces are easy to move around and I can only think of one that is glued to a spot.  The person chose this spot because it was an orange face on an orange post.

Discrete, not loud.  Smiling into the sunrise every morning, on guard at the corner.

I have asked Everyone's Big Sister here if she saw them and she did not even know of them.  I don't believe they are on Constance's side of the drive.

So whoever you are, thank you.  You have given me a smile.  Others will as well, because I am not the only person who is moving them around. 

In fact, someone came onto the property and stuck one to the front bumper of my Jeep.  I was amused when I spotted it.

I'll put it in a spot that has Pride Of Place in the cabin of the Jeep.  Since nobody has ever left me a duck, that is.

Thank you!