The announcement of the winner of this year’s Window Decorating Contest in downtown Knoxville was overshadowed, as was everything else this past Friday, by the shootings in Connecticut. This isn’t really the forum for a discussion of this latest shooting tragedy in our country, so I’ll leave that topic for another time. I will say that it breaks my heart to see the magnitude of senseless killing that we have in this country.
So, let’s take a look at some of the beautiful windows scattered about downtown. There are far too many to cover in one post and with the hard work downtown merchants invested in their storefronts, I want to include as many as possible, so I’ll follow up with more tomorrow. I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking, but I’ll add a little color commentary where I see fit.
The first four pictures are from the windows of Mast General Store. I have to say their windows are always appealing and their holiday versions are no less so. It’s a pretty high bar for would-be downtown window designers to match. They didn’t win the award, but each of their massive windows are beautiful.
For the remainder of this post, we’ll focus on the 100 Block and the Old City. I’m not sure what the idea is in the window of the Urban Bar and Grill. Maybe Ally is reading this and can fill us in. I see Santa and what appears to be snow, but I also see a figure captioned, “Mayor.” Further compounding my confusion are the remnants of Halloween. Finally, what’s the idea behind a tombstone that says, “RIP XMas?” I’m not getting it.
I’m not sure Lox was even participating, but it’s a pretty interesting window. A sexy Ice Queen? I’m not sure, but it fits their image as pretty cutting edge. It’s probably not the kind of thing the judges were after, but that’s cool. We all have a different vision, right?
I really like the decorations on the windows of the Jackson Avenue Market. The whimsical paintings match the attitude of the business and the art inside. The displays at Inner Spaces on Jackson Avenue weren’t elaborate and probably weren’t competitive for the awards, but the trees are obviously very nice and I like the window-front.
I laughed on the street when I saw the Pizza Guy at DaVinci’s carrying the gift. It’s not much more than a goofy thought, but it’s pretty funny to see. Crush always has an interesting store front window and I thought they did a good job incorporating the personality of the place into the Christmas Theme. As for the two pubs pictured, I think they are each among the most beautiful store fronts in the city and with the added decoration, they look even better.
I’m not completely sure what Blue Slip Winery is going for with the palm trees. It’s fun, but is it Christmas? It does remind me of the song, “Christmas Island.” I liked Barley’s window even though there probably wasn’t enough to make it competitive for any awards. The lamp shade idea was cute and what says Christmas in the City more than a tagger leaving his mark below your decoration?
The final pictures are from an incredibly renovated building on East Jackson. It isn’t even fully occupied and, yet, the owners saw fit to place some of the very best window decorations in the city. Pretty impressive and I hope their building is fully occupied during 2013. Tomorrow we’ll look at more of the windows on Gay Street and Market Square, including the winning entry in this year’s contest.