Looking at a McDonald's sign in suburban Phoenix, Arizona


It's March 9th, 2021, and I'm looking at the sign for the McDonald's where I get my coffee every morning, which I find absolutely amazing. And it's typical of the things that I've loved to look at ever since I was a kid. I'll see if I can explain, and maybe you'll be able to see it the way that I do. If not, I understand.

I've enjoyed looking at things for as long as I can remember - that's the reason that I started drawing, it helped me organize these things in my little mind. There would be shapes, and colors, and texture, and so many things that the grownups just didn't see. And when I started teaching drawing, I repeated the best advice that I'd ever gotten from an art teacher: spend more time looking than drawing.

Nowadays I spend all of my time looking. I'm too lazy to carry a sketchbook around anymore, and I'm usually even too lazy to take a photo, even though all I have to do is click a button on my phone. But as I looked at this sign this morning while drinking my coffee I was reminded of how amazing everything in the world is to me, and always has been.

If you're a mature, reasonable, responsible adult (what I call a "grownup") then what you see is content. That is, you see a sign that indicates that there is a place where you can get food, like burgers and fries. And that's what most people see, which is a good thing. If they didn't then this would simply be a very expensive privately-funded metal sculpture!


There's just so much to see that I'm not sure where to start! I have to admit that my eye was drawn to the metal structures just below the sign, which to me don't seem to perform any type of function at all. I'm sure that a sign expert could tell me what they're for, but to me they seem to be the kind of wonderful fanciful detail that my favorite artist Jack Kirby used to draw. Just visual complexity for the fun of it.


Then there's the texture of the stuff dripping down towards the "a" and "l". My first thought would be pigeons, although it looks as if something like an egg got thrown up there. If it were pigeons, why not on the other side?


I did reach a point in my life where I could read, and I still can, so my little brain would puzzle about why such a big sign wouldn't describe what type of business this was? Of course, McDonalds is so famous that they don't need to say "hamburgers", but if you didn't know, it could be anything. Maybe a water park?

One of the things that I used to do in high school was to draw lettering to look "three dimensional", and that sort of thing still fascinates me. Yes, these letters are actually built to stick out like that, which must have cost more money, but from a distance you'd never see it. I have to wonder if it makes the lighting stand out better at night?

By the way, for you responsible grownups, this McDonalds is near the northwest corner of 67th Avenue and Peoria, in Peoria, Arizona. A small coffee is only 97 cents if you're a senior citizen, which I am. Thank you for going over to McDonalds with me today!


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