An emailer asks:
Have you noticed the sculptures mounted on street lamps on Santa Monica Blvd. in Westwood (I noticed them just west of Manning, and repeating for several blocks and stopping before Sepulveda). I saw an armadillo. Maybe some snowflakes, a tribal musical figurine, and some other stuff that I couldn't identify on first glance. Thanks for any intel on these pieces.
This emailer is not the first person to ask about these little sculptures--they're extremely discreet, but have actually been up since 2006. As the Route 66 Reversed website says, "For one thing, it’s all mounted up at the top of the new lampposts, far out of normal vision. For another, it’s far from monumental. I only noticed it one day when, stuck in traffic, I looked up and thought I saw ? is that an armadillo? What’s it doing in California, impaled on a lamppost, and plated in aluminum? The only clue to its meaning is on the bracket below, where the numerals 66 are punched out of the metal ? backwards." Yes, these are little Route 66 monuments, two sculptures each for each of the eight states the Mother Road travels through (California gets a "Eureka" and a surfboard). The sculptures were put up in 2006 at the tail end of the Santa Monica Boulevard Transit Parkway Project (that was that huge reconstruction of the whole section between Beverly Hills and the 405). What we haven't been able to find out is the name of the artist--anyone?
· Part 3: The 66 Memorial, West Los Angeles [Route 66 Reversed]
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