Go Retire Psychiatrist

We got out and about on August 25, 2026 to see the new sculptures in Iowa City! All 8 of them are up but most of them don’t have artist nameplates yet. The two exceptions were Tim Adams striking giant green and purple flower at Riverfront Crossings Park and mine, The Waving Man, at Scott Park:

It was a fairly hot day and we put 5.6 miles on the step counter, which is typical when we hike around the Iowa City Sculptors Showcase. There are 8 new sculptures.

They’re pretty spread out although they’re in the same places they’ve been for several years now: Terry Trueblood Trail, Riverfront Crossings Park, the Iowa City River Walk, Mercer Park, and Scott Park.

The walking man is, for now, what we’ll call the one just south of the McCollister Boulevard bridge on Terry Trueblood Trail. This is a stunning tall figure you really have to walk all the way around to get the 360-degree look. It had something that looked like grass with a napkin wrapped around it in the neck area. Maybe it needs repair work. It seems flexible. I wonder if it’ll stand up to a 30-mph wind.

The one closest to the walking man was just north of McCollister Boulevard bridge and reminds us of a flock of birds in flight above an abstract shape that reminded me of a web.

There are 3 at Riverfront Crossings Park, and one is Tim Adams’ work which looked like a giant green and purple flower. Another is abstract and more geometrical. The third made me think of a leaf or flower emerging from a bulb.

On the Iowa City River Walk is what looked just like a fantastic land surveyor’s giant plumb bob! That brought back memories of my youth when I worked for a consulting engineer company. I was a draftsman and a land surveyor technician.

Continuing on our walk we passed by Napoleon Park and coincidentally there just happened to be a land surveyor out there! We spoke with him and I mentioned the sculpture of the plumb bob. He didn’t know about the art work—and said he’d used a plumb bob only while in training. It didn’t sound like he uses it routinely on the job now, though. It’s all about laser-assisted technology these days.

The sculpture at Mercer Park made me feel like I’m shopping for shoes. There are several footprints stamped out of the metal with numbers that look like they might be shoe sizes.

Finally, at Scott Park, there is a clever 3-dimensional sculpture of linked chains which you can walk around.

Sena’s 4 favorites are, starting from the best: Tim Adams’s flower, the flock of birds, linked chains, and the walking man.

My 4 favorites are, starting from best: the giant plumb bob, the walking man, Tim Adams’s flower, and the flock of birds.

That’s it for now. We hope the name and title plates will be installed soon!