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Plan Bee

5.0 (2 reviews)

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4 years ago

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5 years ago

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There! - Fountain sculpture at Oakland City Center

There!

(5 reviews)

Downtown Oakland, Oakland Chinatown

This is a lovely sculpture located at the Center Walk across from Frank Ogawa Plaza. It's labeled…read more"fountain" on the Oakland City Center map/directory. The piece was inspired by Gertrude Stein's quote "There is no there there", referring to her childhood home, despite her words being interpreted in different ways. The artist, Roslyn Mazzilli, spent decades creating sculptures that reflect aspects of nature and add vibrant color to the various settings in which her public artworks are displayed. "There!" is seemingly ageless and certainly an attractive centerpiece among the surrounding shops and eateries at the City Center, and a prime representation of Mazzilli's work.

This colorful sculpture is in the middle of the city center plaza right outside the 12th street…read moreBart station. I'd been here many times before and even sat around the fountain but never paid attention to the name of the sculpture nor it's creator until my last visit. Thanks to yelp, I learned something new once again. Now I know that this sculpture is knows as There!, created by sculptor Roselyn Mazzilli. Upon closer look, I saw the nameplate for the first time including the date of installation which is 1988. The entire plaza is a nice place to hang around with lots of restaurants providing outside seating around the sculpture and the fountain. Due to severe drought in California, the fountain is currently off but the sculpture is still a beauty to behold.

Oakland's Painted Gnomes - Mid-Century Monster tribute "gnome"

Oakland's Painted Gnomes

(4 reviews)

This is a love story, really. On man's work to put what he can on the scale, to in a modest and…read moresimple and gentle way tip the balance in a better direction. This is a tale of affirmation. Of how even at the dark hours when for a moment it feels as if the sun will never come up it does. The gnomes stand where you're looking only if you're looking down. Standing waiting to greet you when the load gets heavy. Standing patiently. Rumor has it there are over 2,000 gnomes attached to over 2,000 utility poles around the City. The subject here is next to the tennis courts across the street from Portal on Second a little bit east of its intersection with Foothill. Thanks to the electric company for resisting the temptation to take them to jail. To me, this is the stuff of life.

They came out of the blue! What do they want?…read more Can we appease them? There's no hiding from them! The gnomes are a spontaneous artistic splurge that got its start around 2012 when gnome after gnome started popping up around Lake Merrit & Lakeview areas on... PG&E utility poles. That's right, the gnomes felt it was crucial to have solid back support and chose some of the tallest structures around. They came in all shapes & sizes and became beloved almost instantly. So much so, that when PG&E labeled them a hazard (big word for such tiny things) the locals rallied behind them and made the utility provider back off. The New York Times headline for this development? "California: A Win for the Little People". Damn, right. It's 2019, and gnomes are still holding on (to poles that is), and you might even see some non-original variations, like squirrel gnomes here & there. KQED did a nice little piece about the Oakland gnomes, and I highly recommend you give it a read/listen: https://www.kqed.org/news/11655269/how-oakland-became-a-gnome-mans-land

Plan Bee - publicart - Updated May 2026

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