[photo by Chris Grossman]

Every other Friday, I post a picture of something in Culver City that is 'hiding in plain sight.' Two weeks ago I asked: Do you know where in Culver City this hairdo is?

Culver CIty Times member Evlynne Braithwaite Householder was the first to correctly identify the photo in the comments section, saying "Isn't this downtown cc in that plaza by the movie theatres and the cold stone creamery?"

Yes, Evlynne, it's the back of "The Lion's Fountain," a bronze sculture by Douglas Olmsted Freeman originally installed in 2004. Lisa Whelan and Vicki Daly Redholtz also correctly identified it on the Culver City Times Facebook page.

Culver City Times member Chris Grossman was also kind enough to post the above picture of the sculture. Very nice. 

Here's what the Culver City website has to say about the sculpture:

The Lion's Fountain was commissioned by the Culver City Redevelopment Agency as the public art component of the Town Plaza development project. The fountain is comprised of an eight foot tall bronze lion sculpture surrounded by forty lighted jets that shoot streams of water high into the air. The Lion's Fountain has become a focal point of Town Plaza, delighting visitors with its carefree demeanor and dancing water jets.

Douglas Olmsted Freeman, a Minneapolis based sculptor, was awarded this commission, in part because of his success in creating sculptures and designing spaces that invite the viewer to participate, to imagine, and to play. Some of Mr. Freeman's other large-scale installations include: A Spiral of Birds (1991) in St. Paul, MN; The Fountain of the Wind (1994), in Duluth, MN; and Shichifukujin - The Seven Lucky Gods of Japan (1995), and The Seven Animals of Akabane (1996) in Tokyo, Japan.

Although the theme for this art work is inspired by other lions associated with Culver City's movie studio history (MGM's Leo the Lion and the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz), this lion is neither a representation nor direct interpretation of either of these felines.