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With Painted Signal Boxes, Decatur Could Be Onto Something

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Kudos to this sort of creativity

Is there a more banal, forgettable occupant of Atlanta's urban landscape than the traffic signal box?

Usually brown, green, or steely gray, the boxes (alternately called "cabinets") are all but invisible, until they attract tags, taped-up bills, and territorial stickers.

Well, a movement is afoot in Decatur to make traffic boxes much more memorable, if not artistically remarkable.

Decatur Arts Alliance officials tell Decatur Metro that artist Larry Holland and a band of creatives are responsible for painting several boxes around the city in recent weeks.

Similar initiatives have popped up around the world — and elsewhere in Georgia. So it's not an entirely new idea, but it seems like a good one.

Some examples:

And now for a look at other signal-box creations around the country — and world:

  • UPDATE: Rory Hawkins, aka Catlanta, kindly sends along these pics of this finished project in Decatur: