Columbia, SC (WLTX) — One of Columbia's best known pieces of public art has been damaged.
Blue Sky's Tunnelvision, a mural depicting a full sized tunnel painted in the trompe-l'oeil style, has had its sun dimmed. Someone pried up the disc that covered the lighting system, and removed the wiring and the 50 feet of coiled neon that illuminated the sun.
Tunnelvision was completed in 1975 on the side of the building at 1514 Marion St. and is visible from Taylor Street, a major thoroughfare in downtown Columbia. In 2001, Blue Sky unveiled a companion piece, Busted Plug Plaza - a sculpture of an oversized tilted fire hydrant at 1404 Taylor St.
Blue Sky said that he was planning to do some retouching on the mural within the next few weeks, "after the weather cooled down a bit."
Over the past 47 years, the artist says that he's done five minor touch-ups to the mural.
The artist said he paid for the original lighting out of his pocket and posted on the Blue Sky Gallery Facebook page that he will "pay a $500 reward to whomever can tell me who smashed the sun on 'tunnel vision.' "