Eyeballs on hill near Clay Terrace aim to make people smile

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By Maria Cook

Since winter of 2018, many Carmel residents have noticed an interesting addition on the hill near the Clay Terrace Boulevard/Range Line Road entrance to Clay Terrace.

For the past six months, a pair of large black and white eyeballs has peered down from top of the hill, making it look like a living creature. The hill has generated many comments on social media, with some residents guessing at the display’s purpose and who is behind it.

As it turns out, that person is Carmel citizen Jason Selburg, and the eyeballs are simply meant to make people smile.

Selburg, who lives near the hill but does not own it, said he was inspired after seeing an online picture of beach ball eyes in a pine tree.

“I just thought, ‘That looks silly. Where could I do that?’ I thought about it and thought ‘Oh, the hill,’” he said.

Selburg purchased a pair of white beach balls, painted them with black latex paint and affixed them to the top of the hill. He assumed the eyeballs might be moved when it came time for mowers to begin work in the spring. But Selburg was pleasantly surprised when workers simply mowed around them.

That’s not to say that keeping the eyeballs in place has been easy. The set topping the hill now are the fourth pair Selburg has ordered. The first were blown away by strong winds, which Selburg said “is when I learned that I needed to tie them down.” The next set was accidentally purchased in the wrong size. The third set ended up disappearing but eventually turned up at Carmel High School, leading Selburg to believe that their removal was a senior prank.

For Selburg, the eyes have always been about one thing: positivity.

“If something just sitting up there can throw someone out of their normal behavior loop enough, then that smile might turn into not honking at the car in front of you,” he said. “Truly, the heart of it is that I wanted to make people smile, and it’s working.”


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