Back at the end of May I posted a link on Facebook about an artist in Bulgaria. Vanyu Krastev puts googly-eyes on bits of broken concrete and other things to turn them into humorous faces. When I suggested that we do the same thing around Greenville, Vicky Turgeon said she wanted in on the action. Today we finally got our schedules to match, so Laura and I joined Vicky and her kids, Nicholas and Emma, to “eyebomb” downtown Greenville.
First we needed supplies. Laura and I went to Michaels and bought an assortment of googly eyes. The ones we got don’t have adhesive backs, and that’s a good thing. We didn’t want to cause permanent damage. We’re not vandals. Instead, we got some tacky putty to stick on things.
The plan was to meet in the morning at the top of Falls Park on South Main Street. Laura and I lucked out and found a parking spot on the bridge on the street. Vicky and crew arrived shortly thereafter.
Right away we found places that needed eyes. There was an alien peeking at us from the grass, and some sort of critter at the base of a lamp post.
From there we crossed the street to the Charles Townes Statue.
We each had a job. Emma and Nicholas looked for places and ideas. Emma stuck the eyes on, and Nicholas had my Panasonic camera to take photos. Vicky got supplies ready by putting the tacky putty on the right size eyes for the location. Laura helped carry supplies, and I came along behind with my DSLR.
The tacky stuff was absolutely the right stuff to use. It let us put the eyes on various objects and remove them without leaving a mark or any damage. The kids were very creative as to where they found potential faces. Here are some more places we found:
The ashtray face was too perfect. We decided that we could sacrifice one pair of eyes and left them there.
Alleys are ideal for eyebombing. There are lots of mechanical what-nots just begging to be turned into faces. Chicora Alley was perfect for such treatment.
Any circle within reach could become a face. Any protrusion or mark was a potential nose. A gap or opening became a mouth. Soon we had a whole menagerie of googly-eyed creatures.
Even my coffee cup looked back at me in astonishment, beaming with its dimpled cheeks.
We especially liked it when we found hair to complete the face.
Nicholas looked up and spotted a couple of surveillance cameras. The alley already had built-in eyes, literally looking down on us.
We continued on around and returned to South Main Street, finding more faces and weird creatures all along our route.
It was hot and we were getting tired. We returned to Falls Park and walked down under the bridge and along the river. More faces awaited.
Emma and I had to pose with our own googly eyes.
The heat was starting to get to us. We had been out for about an hour, and that was probably enough. We said goodbye to Vicky, Nicholas, and Emma and headed back toward home. As we drove we started to see places all the way home that could use a pair of googly eyes. This could get addictive. Regardless, it was a blast, and I want to do this again. Soon.
