Madison is not known for grand pieces of public art. The closest things the city has to the monolithic grandeur of the St. Louis Arch are in fact hidden from the public. One of them is masked by a piece of art itself in the form of Frank Lloydd Wright's Monona Terrace, while the second piece is hidden by placement in an obscure location.
In 1987 Mary Kay Baum and Joe Sensenbrenner battled for Madison's mayoral seat.
At the heart of the debate was a $67,000 mural at Olin Terrace and other city spending issues. The mural was designed by world-renowned artist Richard Hass, whose work includes the exterior of the building at 224 W. Wisconsin Ave., which used to house Grand cinema. It depicted a man in a hollow, with a river flowing from the capitol.
So what became of this piece of art that is still the most expensive Madison has ever commissioned?
Sadly, it is obscured by Monona Terrace. What is left of the expansive work is in a shadowy portion of the tunnel underneath the Terrace on John Nolen Drive.
Though when driving by at high speeds it is hard to tell the work from graffiti, brave souls who find a way to get up close to the mural can still see illusions of the original design.
From fake shadows, to the \deep"" cavern carved by the small stream, to windows that seem so real one wonders what is on the other side, the mural still holds its luster.
Oddly, Haas told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel he was not overly sad about the piece's destruction.
""I'm told it's still under there somewhere, but in ruinous form,"" he said. ""I feel that the piece no longer has its context and doesn't need to exist.""
Somewhat off the usual paths of the Madison isthmus, two enormous creatures loom over stray passersby in a tremendous display of rust and beauty. Filling the lawn of an apartment building at 211 S. Paterson St., a pair of metal birds make any trip on the bike path worth remembering. Those beasts, the Dream Keepers, may be out of the way, but lose none of their strange allure by residing far off Madison's main thoroughfares.
The Dream Keepers are the creation of Thomas Every, a welder extraordinaire whose folio includes somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 art pieces. Welding, to Every, is more than an art-it's his life.
""I weld more than anybody else,"" he said.
Every's trademark is his bird creations. He said he has always loved them and has crafted countless pieces of avian attractions.
""I like birds because they are a non-threatening species,"" he said.
While most birds may appear benign, the Dream Keepers look like animals from some mystical era. Every said he based the birds off an extinct species of elephant bird that lived in Madagascar up to the 12th century.
The birds are a conglomeration of component parts that originated from around southern Wisconsin and places nearby. The base steel plate comes from Steffco Supply in Adams, Wis., the kickers are old farm wheels from Bob Leecher of Baraboo, Wis., and the eyelashes were once overhead door springs that can trace their roots to Chicago, Ill.
Lisa Ponti, the documentarian of the Dream Keepers project, said it took ten-and-a-half months to make the birds. They came together in pieces, with the body, legs and head built separately.
She continues to work with Every and said she admires his ability to visualize the entire project.
""He does really huge things and he doesn't make blueprints or drawings ahead of time,"" she said.
Every's work resides in a neighborhood that has the eclecticism of Williamson Street and the echoes of the Wisconsin and Southern railroad line. Off the beaten path, the offbeat art of the Dream Keepers finds its home.
