Tick-tock, tick-tock, it's almost timefor Downtown's art project, Hour Town

Artist Sherri Shaver, right, turns over her two clocks to Terry Leopold;
Dragonfly design at right is called Time is flying

Racine's summer-long Happy Hour began Tuesday morning, as artists from all over the city brought their clock creations Downtown, in preparation for the Downtown Racine Corporation's Hour Town public art display.

By noon more than 20 of the large clocks were on hand, and the clock was ticking: the deadline is 5 p.m. today. The 60 clocks will be displayed Saturday night on the lawn of  "Club Wingspread" at a cocktail party for artists and sponsors. Then they will be distributed Downtown for public display beginning Monday.

Puns were much in evidence among the early arrivals. Plaques with names such as Time is flying, Sands of time, It's always time for tea, Big Time, Timepieces, Time flies and Time to sow were affixed to each clock's base. We'll leave it up to you to guess which name fit which clock: for example, one of a large fish trying to select his lunch or one with farm equipment marking the hours.

Terry Leopold, DRC’s special events coordinator, checked in the clocks as they arrived, listened appreciatively to artists' explanations of their designs, and noted that Racine's public art project -- now in its ninth year -- has gone on longer than any other city's.

Time flies when you're having fun, eh?

Richard Harris and Craig Aude mount Time to Sow on its base

Here's a closeup of Time to Sow, by Jayne and Grace Siler

Natasha Miller brings in Marilyn, by her son Mike Miller, 16, of St. Cat's

Time for Change?, left, recreates artist Shepard Fairey's Barack Obama portrait 

-- made out of painted pennies. Its artist Jeff Levonian, won 1st prize

when fish were the subject of DRC's contest a few years ago.
Center, Sun, Moon and Stars, by Mary Lou Dettmer;
at right, Sun and Moon by Lloyd Swager