As I was walking along Union Street super early on a quiet Sunday morning, making my way from the historic courthouse towards my eventual stop for coffee, I came across "Dawn" by Sam Spiczka, one of the city's public arts commission installations, and it hit just right for that hour of the day.
The piece rises in this organic, skeletal curve that feels both industrial and natural at the same time. Something about the upward reach immediately made me think of the Holocaust Memorial in Miami with its giant hand stretching toward the sky, not in a direct way but in that shared sense of striving and tenson.
Standing here with no one else around, the street still waking up and most of the shops still closed, the sculpture felt like a quiet marker of transition, the kind of artwork that is a reward for being out before the world gets noisy.
[Review 664 of 2026 - 4752 in North Carolina - 25845 overall] read more