Downtown artwork displeases some in Aberdeen

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, August 2, 2006

ABERDEEN – Unique pieces of art that pay tribute to successful Harborites have popped up around trees in downtown Aberdeen.

But not everyone’s happy about it.

An image of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain playing a guitar is featured on a big red flame on one side of a tree guard in front of Rosevear’s Music Center.

A silhouette of a boxer, representing former middleweight champ Freddie Steele, is on a tree guard that resembles a boxing ring.

It’s a way to spruce up the downtown corridor, display the talents of local artists and get people to stop and walk around, city officials say.

“It’s something fun, something different,” public works director Larry Bledsoe said. “This is not going to be downtown Seattle. When you drive around and look at the structures that we have and the economic situations of the buildings, you’ve got to do something different.”

Critics say downtown was supposed to have a metropolitan theme that replicated what Aberdeen looked like in the early 1900s. They say the new tree guards and “critter sculptures” – a group of fictional endangered species – have turned the downtown area into a mishmash of conflicting designs.

A letter expressing concern over the new direction and signed by about six dozen people was sent to Mayor Dorothy Voege and the City Council.

“The newly installed tree guards do not fit the theme we had all tried to project. They are out of place in the downtown element,” the letter states. “This is not to criticize the artwork done, but to suggest they should be used elsewhere.

“The downtown is becoming a ‘mishmash’ of too many diverse and conflicting designs. This concept does not allow the eye to have a place to rest; to enjoy the beauty and elegance our downtown should project.”

The letter writers say community members volunteered many hours in 2002 to create a design concept for the downtown business district that would create a showplace and pride for the community.

The area around the Aberdeen Timberland Library is a perfect example of how the whole downtown should look, according to the letter writers.

The signers include some of city’s most prominent business people and others who have volunteered to do help change the look of downtown.

Some council members have expressed their own concerns about the issue.

“If we don’t have a unique take on things, we’re going to be a place outside of Seattle that looks like everyone else,” Councilman Paul Fritts said. “Part of it is to catch the eye of people driving through town and give them a reason to stop.

“It’s frustrating, listening to people whine and complain and whine and complain,” he added. “Art, obviously, is subjective. We’re trying to create a nicer downtown.”

The tree guards, which cost about $800 each, are being designed by about 14 different local artists. Last year the City Council authorized using $44,000 out of the city’s hotel-motel fund for the tree guards.

In addition, students in a welding class at Hoquiam High School are working to create guards that will go around the bottom of large electrical panels on some downtown corners.

Bledsoe admits there is a mishmash look to the tree guards, but that’s because they’re representing a variety of people. Stars from Aberdeen’s Walk of Fame, which honors outstanding Harborites, line Heron and Wishkah streets, and the tree guards represent the person honored on the star next to the tree.

The idea is encourage people to get out of their cars, walk around downtown, see the Walk of Fame stars, tree guards and sculptures, and perhaps stop in businesses along the way.

“It has diversity because there’s a diversity of people the guards are representing,” Bledsoe said. “Anytime you have something artistic, you’ll find something that one person absolutely hates and one person absolutely loves.”

The letter writers, however, think the tree guards would be better suited to parks, playgrounds and sports fields outside the downtown area. They say the critters might be better in one location, perhaps in the Broadway median, and suggested painting the electric boxes bronze to coordinate with the lampposts and benches.

The public works director said he understands the importance of having a cohesive look to the area. The bulb-outs, brickwork, lampposts, garbage cans, tree grates, flower containers and benches provide that continuity, he said.

“Beyond that, there needs to be other stuff that’s different and unique,” Bledsoe said. “The bulb-outs, I look at them as a palette. They’re blank canvases and there are things that can be done to that space to help enrich the downtown spirit.

“What that is, I don’t know yet, but these other things are little garnishes along the way.”