Central Park

As I was doing some research on New York to prepare myself to venture to NY during winter break from school I came across an Alice reference I wasn’t planning on finding (They are everywhere!). In Central Park there is a statue depicting characters from Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The statue stands at eleven feet tall at 74th street. It depicts Alice on the mushroom with The Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, the March Hare, The White Rabbit, Alice’s Cat Dinah, and the Dormouse. It was commissioned by George Delacorte for his wife who loved Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. José de Creeft was the artist who made this tremendous sculpture.

I found it interesting that this story is so popular that it is in some of the most popular places in the world, like Central Park in NY. I never think about the things I read being so important and influential in society.  It is amazing to me when stories can come to life right off the pages of a book through the use of their concepts in the world. Everything seems to eventually tie back into real life. After all, fantasy couldn’t exist without reality. Reality couldn’t exist without fantasy.

Picture and information courtesy of http://www.centralpark.com/pages/attractions/alice-in-wonderland.html