As you cross the railroad tracks on Fifth Street in Springfield’s north side, don’t be surprised if you see a 10-foot tall robot staring at you with its glowing red eye and aiming its arm-mounted machine gun in your direction.
It’s just a sculpture by Springfield artist Travis Taylor, and it hasn’t attained sentience…yet.
Over the long winter, Taylor transformed an old, broken Yamaha motorcycle and some extra scrap metal into the futuristic android that now guards his driveway. The sculpture doesn’t move, Taylor says, but his future creations might. He is currently working on a similar robot sculpture that should be done in a week or two.
Taylor has entertained offers to sell the sculpture, which would allow him to get more materials to build more robots.
“Right now, my wife has limited me to no more than two gigantic alien robots in the yard at a time,” he says.
