Reaching skyward, this monumentally-sized bronze Pinocchio graces downtown St. Louis. "Citygarden" takes up a couple of blocks and is dotted with sculptures of various styles in a garden setting--popular with office workers on their lunch breaks and families-with-children alike.

Although the wooden-boy-who-lied might seem like an unlikely art subject, its artist Jim Dine says that "the idea of a talking stick becoming a boy [is] like a metaphor for art, and it’s the ultimate alchemical transformation."

I can't help but find some political commentary as well, though, in the placement of this statue--with the Civil courts building on one end of the park, and the Old Courthouse on the other (site of the pre-Civil-War era Dred Scott case), the proverbial nose-that-grows might well belong in this urban corridor of trials, attorneys, and witnesses...

(The proper and full name of this sculpture is "Big white gloves, big four wheels;" you can't see it in the photo, but Pinocchio is standing on a wheeled cart.)