Climate Weirding Spawn?
Just after dark on Wed the 27th an email came in from a fellow SLC artist, informing me that his neighbor had just recovered a pair of my trout that were lying in the street/median after an apparent hit and run by a car. This is the same group that was hit by a car previously, and I headed up to see how the triple group faired. The triple group was hit as well, but the ground was soft from our recent weeks of rain and they were just pushed to a 35 degree tilt- all the welds held and they weren’t dented this time. There was still a stream hoop from the missing pair topping one of two shoved-over poles, the hoop was in good shape save for the missing everything else. There was a lot of car debris: headlight, grill bits, trim, etc. It must have been a newer car with the updated pedestrian safety standards, saving the sculptures from the beating they had taken a few years ago. I headed over to the rescuer’s house, she met me at the door telling me a pair of young fellows had helped her lift the sculpture into her SUV. Her husband helped me move the pair of trout and their remaining hoop into the truck- and easy shift across.
After a night in the bed of the truck the trout are eager to swim free. 
I use the hoist to fly them off of the tailgate. 
The lead trout is tattooed with tire treads, rubber skids and mud- with a long scrape. 
Healed. 
The skid-marks culminated in a mess of white paint, transferred from the car to the sculpture. 
The paint erases almost entirely. 
Here and there are blips of yellow curb paint / scuffs. 
The entire sculpture is washed, waxed, and polished. 
This is their second time back home in the studio since they were originally installed back in 2008. The last time was 2019. 
Their usual home is the busy intersection of 1300 E and 2100 S. 
The stream hoop slid along the ground- some bright spots emerged from under a skein of mud and will need new patina. 
This is the tail of the following fish, where the group tore away from the back hoop. 
After getting things squared away with the Arts Council, and the police being notified that I would be removing the hoop, I cut it from the pole. 
The fish tail fits to the golden scar. 
The weld to the stainless steel pipe sheared clean on the hoop still connected to the group, as that took the full force of the car. That same force hit this rear weld, shearing it clean. 
All of my welds connecting the tout to the shared hoop held. The past accident had been more severe tearing up all the original welds. 
The center hoop is the main support for both fish, with many points of contact. The rear hoop has just the one (broken) welded tail of the follow fish. 
This little guy was the lead fish of the entire group back in 2019, and took a harder hit then- knocked clean from the hoop with many torn fins. The lead fish of the triple group back then needed dents pounded out by drilling holes from the opposite side. The past triage can be seen by selecting “Cutthroat” from categories list under the title, at the top left of the post.
DangerHart 