Blog / 2024 / The Rainbow Connection

Hello Lovers and Dreamers! I’m writing today to tell you that I’m doing it: I’m covering a wooden bridge near my apartment with rainbows.

I’ve put down about fifty feet of color so far, and I’m thinking it’ll take another month to get the structure at full rainbow capacity since I have to wait for dry spells in the weather to glue on the colors.

One thing you should know about this colorful installation:

These rainbows are illegal.

And I don’t mean that in the idiotic don’t-say-gay Floridian sense of illegal. Rather, I didn’t get proper authorization to make this public art.

It wasn’t for lack of trying. I contacted the government agencies in charge of the park where this bridge is located. In response, I received one “not it” and nothing else. I even got the bridge some press, and still it’s been crickets from the official-types who are supposed to be taking care of this structure.

Normally, I’d respect the rules enough to wait to receive the permission to rainbow, but this bridge has been repeatedly vandalized by a Trumper for almost a year now. And, after a month of trying to heal the structure with big paper bandaids, community action, and a dose of humor, it’s time to move on to a more comprehensive artistic intervention, with or without the go-ahead.

And you’re invited to join me—at the Alexauken Creek Spillway Bridge (on the tow path just north of Lambertville, New Jersey) or anywhere that hateful messages appear. If we’re going to save the world from tyranny, it’ll be at least in part because Lovers and Dreamers cancel out all the cruelty with radical rainbow connections and plenty of poetry!