It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Minneapolis' giant pencil dressed like Superman

Halloween is right around the corner, and the 20-foot-tall No. 2 pencil outdoor artwork on John and Amy Higgins' lawn at 2217 E. Lake of the Isles Pkwy. is ready.

The pencil has gone full-on Superman, complete with red underwear, nerdy glasses and a dashing red cape. That all makes sense considering that Superman is the pencil's favorite superhero, according to John Higgins.

"At first the pencil thought he would be shy to have the costume on standing on the front lawn, but now he loves it and is having so much fun with all the people stopping to take pictures," Higgins said via an email to the Minnesota Star Tribune. "On the weekends, we put a speaker outside and a few times as people walk by we play R.E.M.'s song 'Superman.'"

The pencil is somewhat serious but mostly whimsical. Last year for Halloween, a few skeletons climbed up it, but nothing like its latest Clark Kent-turned-Superman fashion.

"The pencil has a personality, and likes to do stuff regular people do — enjoy sunsets, pose for pictures with people, etc.," Higgins said, noting that this year, "the pencil wanted to put on a costume for Halloween and hopes to go trick-or-treating."

The pencil landed in the Higgins' front yard in June 2022, some five years after the upper canopy of a 180-year-old oak tree fell onto the Higgins' front lawn during a storm.

Rather than just get rid of the wood, the couple decided to preserve it in their own way — by making it into a public work of art in the shape of a No. 2 pencil. They hired wood sculptor Curtis Ingvoldstad to craft it. Every summer it gets sharpened, and the public is invited to watch. Last summer, Higgins estimates that about 1,000 people showed up for the two-hour-long sharpening.

The idea of taking a common object and turning it into something huge yet recognizable takes its cue from Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen's iconic Spoonbridge and Cherry at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden near the Walker Art Center. The cherry from the sculpture is removed every 10 years or so to get a fresh coat of paint, and similarly, the public goes to watch the removal.

The Lake of the Isles pencil is outside year round, but its time to masquerade as Superman won't last forever.

"The costume will come off after Halloween," Higgins said, "maybe a day or two later."