Art, A Scary Business - Off the Wall Friday

LUCY.....the first one and the new one

I love Lucy!  I mean, seriously, who doesn't love Lucille Ball?  Well, apparently, the townspeople of Lucy's birthplace,  Celeron, NY don't.  To be clear, they love Lucy too.  Its the bronze statue of her created by artist Dave Poulin, that they weren't too thrilled with. In fact, they were so appalled at his rendition of their beloved comedian that they started a social media campaign entitled, "We love Lucy. Get rid of this statute". (harsh!)

 And its not just the townspeople either. In  the 7 years that the statute has been in place its  taken on a kind of  local cult following being nicknamed, Scary Lucy.  It was so scary  that its become a tourist attraction in its own right and has generated its share of internet mockery.

Something had to be done.  And it was. New Jersey artist,  Carolyn Palmer was commissioned  to do another statute of Lucy, depicting her in a more positive light.  This past weekend the new statute was unveiled to over-whelming positive reviews.

To be fair, Dave Poulin did make a public apology concerning his work.  He writes, "From the day of its installation, I have shared my disappointment in the final outcome".  He has also gone on to make a huge body of work that has beautified many public spaces.  This one piece from nearly 10 years ago, is still haunting him though.  Worse yet, its haunting him on a national level.

Once I got over the jarring difference of the two statutes, I was struck at how horrifying it must have been for Poulin to see this one piece get such notoriety.  Putting your work out there is scary enough but to fail so spectacularly in the public eye is enough to make you reconsider going into accounting.

I'm sure that the average joe on the street doesn't realize how scary it is to put  your art on display  for public scrutiny.  Nor how difficult  it is to create on demand.   Or how hard it is  to match your talents with that of the expectations of a commissioned piece.

Now that I think about it, being an artist is down right terrifying.



So What Have Been Up to Creatively?