Why I photographed the Olympic Bar sign at 1 in the morning…

I don’t know if you’d remember this blog post from last month.  Back in June 2014, I drove out to Albany’s South End in the middle of the night, and took some photos of the distressed, broken Olympic Bar sign on South Pearl Street.

Among the photographs I took was this high-contrast shot of the Olympic Bar sign, with the only illumination coming from an old street lamp.

And any time I show this picture as one of the shots I took of the sign, I invariably receive the same response.

“Chuck, what are you doing in downtown Albany – in the South End – at 1:00 a.m.?  Do you know that people get killed down there?  Do you know that people get mugged down there?”

Yeah… and do you know that people take photographs of old, distressed signs down there? 🙂

Okay.  I’ve had a plan for this sign, and it involves something called electroluminescent wire.  Also known as “EL wire” for short, electroluminescent wire is a cool-to-the-touch glowing plastic filament that can be bent or wrapped or twisted into various fun-filled artistic projects.  A battery pack is attached to the EL wire to make it either glow or oscillate.

And that was my plan.  I first blew up the Olympic Bar sign to a 16×20 construct.  Then, by using the EL wire, I wrapped and twisted and bent the filament to replicate the neon script in the old sign.

A few more twists and turns… some fishing line to hold each bend and twist into place…

Now comes the test.  The EL wire is threaded in and out and around the sign.  Batteries installed.  I inserted the artwork in a generic black frame.

Here’s the “before” image.

Okay, now for the big test.  Lights out.  Turn on the power.

And sure enough…

I get this.

That’s right.

I just re-lit the Olympic Bar sign.

With a little bit of inspiration and dedication, this is now a finished artwork.  It’s not a Dream Window, although if I had thought about it I could have installed it in an old window frame.  Instead, this is a recreation of what the sign itself might have looked like when the restaurant was still operational.

A few tests with the battery pack… the picture can switch between full illumination, oscillation (“on and off”), quick oscillation (“on off on off on off”), and no illumination (“off off off off off off”).

I still have some last-minute tweaks for the picture – mostly, some black electrical tape to cover up some of the neon-like “flash” that goes between letters (I used some tape between the “B” and “A” in “BAR”).  I also must add some wire backing.

But I will tell you this.

If you go to some charitable event in the Capital District, such as – oh, I don’t know, possibly Historic Albany Foundation’s BUILT or the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society’s “Art Saves Animals” – and you see this up on display and a bidding sheet next to it…

You’ll at least know the artist behind the artwork’s creation.