EVERETT – “The Maid of the Woods” is going on tour.
When news spread last week of James Belkonen, 39, and his displaced 7-foot nude woodcarving, opportunity came calling. And knocking. And ringing the doorbell.
Belkonen made the TV news, too, and more than a dozen home and business owners called to offer his sculpture a home.
“I’m overwhelmed,” Belkonen said. “I’m floating on a cloud. I feel like the future is right there – it’s an opportunity to seize the moment.”
Belkonen has decided to line up 12 places around the county and take his Maid on a tour.
“A lot of art goes on tour,” he said.
She’ll stay at a new place each month for a year. Then he’ll work on finding her a permanent home.
The Everett man tried unsuccessfully to donate the sculpture to the city of Everett last year, but it was returned to him earlier this month.
Invitations, and wisecracks, for the wandering Maid trickled in from all over Snohomish County.
“I think it’s one of the most beautiful carved pieces I’ve ever seen,” wrote Eurdice Haggard of Lynnwood. “I would be delighted to give it a place of honor at our new home … I don’t think a bar is the place for milady.”
Someone else joked that Belkonen should put the Maid in downtown Everett with “the other unwanted sculpture – next to the Ten Commandments.”
R Place, a Marysville bar, is vying for the carving. So is New Day Espresso and Enchantments in Startup. Owner Stacy Scoggins is trying to start a sculpture garden in front of her business.
“His work would get more exposure being on Highway 2,” Scoggins said.
She’d been looking for a mermaid for the front of the store but got the chills when she saw a Herald photo of the “Maid of the Woods.”
“Look how sweet she is. The combination of strength, beauty, the feminine quality she has – it’s all there in one piece,” Scoggins said. “I think it’s what I’ve been waiting for.”
A year ago, Belkonen, a cabdriver and weekend landscaper, was desperately trying to find a permanent home for his masterpiece. For a time, she adorned the doorways of two area businesses, a bar and a barbershop, but was returned when each closed its doors.
Belkonen, unaware of the formal process the city requires of art donors, unknowingly circumvented the required red tape by hauling his sculpture straight to the tiny J.J. Hill Park at Broadway and Hewitt Avenue.
The Maid was in the park for three weeks before the city hauled her away, storing her in Legion Park not far from another carving in search of a home, the Everett story pole.
Structural Design Associates, an Everett engineering firm, adopted J.J. Hill Park about three years ago. Co-owners Chris and Linnea Covington said the park is immaculate because its engineers oversee it. If they drive by and see litter in the park, they’ll pull over to clean it up.
But somehow last summer, not a single engineer noticed the 7-foot nude sculpture standing in the park, Linnea Covington said, chuckling.
“I just can’t believe it was there that long,” she said.
Belkonen said he’s still thinking about trying to donate the Maid of the Woods to the city, but this time through proper channels.
“I think it’s fabulous that he’s gotten some attention,” city spokeswoman Kate Reardon said.
“When the time comes and he is interested in filling out the paperwork to go through the process, I know our Cultural Commission will weigh the value and the artistic nature of the piece and treat it fairly to determine whether we’d accept it as a donated item,” she said.
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