For your viewing pleasure

Barbara Diamond

Editor’s note: This is the first in a two-part series about public

art in Laguna Beach.

The statue of a boy and his dog in Jahraus Park on North Coast

Highway has charmed pedestrians for decades.

“I remember walking by it as a child and smiling,” said Cossie

Mechling, who has lived in Laguna Beach for 75 years. “I loved dogs

and I loved that the sculpture was created to water dogs. Did you

know that?”

It is the oldest piece of public art in the city, according to the

city’s Public Art Brochure. It was installed in 1935, more than 50

years before the city adopted an ordinance in 1986 to fund an Art in

Public Places program.

The goal of the ordinance is to increase publicly accessible art

in a city defined by its artistic heritage.

“Art is the very essence of Laguna,” Arts Commission Chair Les

Thomas said. “It’s as important as our geographical beauty.”

A revised city brochure containing descriptions of public art and

their sites will be available next week at the Recreation Department,

515 Forest Ave., just in time for Heritage Month. Twenty-seven sites

will be identified, 13 of them new since the last brochure was

published in 2001.

On Sunday, the city will dedicate one of its most recent

acquisitions, Michele Taylor’s whimsical “Laguna Tortoise” at

Bluebird Park. Ceremonies will begin at 4 p.m.

The city has laid out $125,000 for public art in the past two

years, about $95,000 of it for installations at the $9-million

Treasure Island Park, a princely sum in comparison to previous years,

but a mere fraction of the $734,000 paid by private developers in

past 24 months to satisfy the city’s requirements. Montage Resort and

Spa alone spent about $600,000 to fulfill its obligation.

“We reached a pinnacle, and not one penny came from residential

taxpayers,” city Arts Coordinator Sian Poeschl said. “That’s

important.”

Money on the scale of the past two years for public art will

probably not be repeated until the Village Entrance and the Festival

of Arts renovation get underway, Poeschl said.

Some of the slack will be taken up by increases in the funding

from the Business Assessment District, a tax imposed on itself by the

hospitality industry to support art as a draw for tourists, a

percentage of which is allocated to the Arts Commission.

The majority of public art has been funded by an assessment levied

by the city on commercial projects with an estimated valuation of

$225,000, including city parks. The city’s Art in Public Places

ordinance obliges the developer to install a piece of original,

site-specific art visible to the public that costs 1% of the

project’s valuation or to contribute 1.25% to an in-lieu fund.

Artist Robert Wyland included the sculpture of a dolphin in the

design of his gallery on South Coast Highway, a purchase he made to

salvage the first Wyland Whaling Wall, which was doomed to extinction

by hotel expansion plans that never came to fruition.

“But it is really that the Arts Commission has been very active,”

Thomas said.

Some public art is selected by competition, some comes from

donations, Thomas said.

Linda Brunker’s “Voyager” and Gerard Stripling’s “Repose” at

Treasure Island Park were chosen through the competitive process.

Cheryl Ekstrom’s “Deer Warrior,” installed near the boy and dog at

Jahraus Park, was donated by the artist. Ceramist Marlo Bartels

donated his distinctive mosaic table and chairs at Main Beach in

1993. Three Jerry Rothman sculptures were donated by Kathleen

Cummings and installed in Heisler Park in 1999.

The Shields family donated “Rocky Ledge” in Heisler Park in 1982,

a memorial to Arts Commissioner Emeritus Doris Shields’ husband, four

years before the Art in Public Places ordinance was passed.

One of the earliest pieces created for a developer under the

ordinance was the “Villa Bella Grotto” on the corner of Upland and

South Coast Highway, installed in 1992 and perhaps one of the most

heavily invested in by the town. The twinkly concrete bench is

composed of cement embedded with bits of broken crockery and glass

collected from residents or picked up on local beaches by artist Leah

Vasquez, who was chair of the Arts Commission when the Art in Public

Places ordinance was formulated.

That same year, the city held an extensive competition for a piece

of art to fulfill its obligation for the remodel of City Hall.

“Kinetic Falls,” a modernistic metal fountain, was a source of

contention from the day it was proposed. Judges recommended a

contemplative well as a fallback.

“The fountain would have been fine at another location,” said

former Mayor Neil Fitzpatrick, who voted against the purchase of the

fountain, disagreeing with former council members Bob Gentry and Lida

Lenney.

The fountain, which cost the city $27,000, never worked properly

and deteriorated, Arts Commission members said, and was finally

removed for an analysis of materials and design. The analysis, which

will be reviewed Monday by the Arts Commission, estimates it will

cost between $35,000 and $45,000 to repair and reinstall the fountain

on the corner by Fire Station One, not to mention future maintenance.

“Without looking at aesthetics, the commission has to consider if

it is financially responsible to recommend restoration,” Arts

Coordinator Poeschl said.

However acquired, all public art must be vetted by the commission

and approved by the council.

“The commission doesn’t always agree,” Thomas said. “But we have

learned to live with consensus.”

The public also gets heard.

Local artist Jorg Dubin was incensed when the Arts Commission

recommended the sculptures of the playing children for the front of

Pavilions.

“I thought it was a disaster, when you consider the commission

spent $75,000 for pieces that were in a series of 30,” Dubin said.

“There were any number of local artists who could have created a

one-of-a-kind piece of really interesting art for that site.”

Getting rid of a piece of public art can be as difficult for the

city as acquiring it. Commissioner Pat Kollenda has recommended that

the city create a sculpture graveyard.

“Our policy complies with the state Visual Artists Rights Act,

passed in 1991, which deals with the moral rights of the artist

compared to the physical rights of the owner,” Poeschl said. “The

artist always has to be informed if a piece of public art is to be

removed or relocated and be involved.”

For those who have lost track of the city’s public art or never

even knew about it, Heritage Month is an ideal time to catch up. The

new Public Art Brochure will contain photographs and brief histories

of the public art and a map to find them. For more information, call

497-0722.