Ottawa, IL: Allen Park Art

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Ottawa has a nice park along the south shore of the Illinois River. While taking pictures of the railroad and road bridges, I encountered some art installations in that park. I'll let the plaque below speak for itself concerning this statue by the river.

The artist Mary Meinz Fanning chose portions of the trusses from the 1933 cantilevered bridge when it was dismantled after the 1981 bridge was completed. According to plaques on the south side of each installation, the yellow one was titled "Reclining" and the red one was titled "Bending." Bending was assigned the Smithsonian Institute Registration #78700001 and Reclining has the next higher number. They were dedicated July 4, 2011.

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I had spotted the flower on top of the hill earlier. I took this picture that is framed by the Reclining structure when I realized that these were probably all part of the "Art By The River - The Mary Fanning Project" mentioned on the plaques. I think the landscape piece in the river bank is a butterfly.

The flower on the hill was next to a trail because I had to wait for a family that had stopped to take a picture of it to move on before I could take this picture.

Paul Carpenter posted
Looking downriver, a man photographs the scene at Allen Park in Ottawa Tuesday morning. "Bending,"1982, the red sculpture by Mary Fanning, is partly under the Illinois River.
Scott A. McCullagh: What does the sculpture represent?
Paul Carpenter: It represents a person (woman, as I recall) bending. Another sculpture there is "Reclining." They are made from the steel of the previous bridge.