“Visitors to Meridian Park were surprised to see a mysterious addition welded on one of the child-themed statues ringing the playground,” mywallingford.com reports. “A machine gun. The statue is right at the northeastern entrance to the playground — one of several statues, like a train engine and a child on stilts.” Strangely, “[Fund raiser] Jeanne says she spoke to Seattle Police, and the officer told her no crime has been committed. ‘He told me this wasn’t vandalism. That just because I didn’t like it didn’t mean it was a crime.'” As much as I like the sculpture, really?
‘He told me this wasn’t vandalism. That just because I didn’t like it didn’t mean it was a crime.’
This cop should be president.
+1 (although I’m surprised it isn’t considered vandalism)
I bet Jeanne has never had any type of sex than missionary, eyes closed, shirts on and lights off.
I bet Jeanne never dreamed that her sexual life had any relevance at all to this topic. Surely she had no idea of the mentality she was up against. She attempts to defend her art project; you attack her sexuality. Sure, that makes PERFECT sense. You stay classy, Cujo.
For once, I agree with Magoo.
It was a reference to being extremely uptight, magoo. But anything you can twist about into being an assault-the better, right? The league of professional victim’s has its new guru.
I couldn’t help but notice that the whole arm looked as if it had been missing from the sculpture, until the MG man “attacked” Jeanne’s sensibilities. I guess a one armed child was a better representation of Jeanne’s idealized childhood. I figured my bait to draw mikeb-but now it is apparently magoo’s turn to be the pious one. More and more my mental image is of you two being from the “Ambiguously Gay Duo” cartoon on Saturday Night Live. They never realize that they are a couple-even though every one else sees it. Not actually disparaging you sexually/just seeing a similarity to a pop icon.
“Not that there’s anything wrong with that…”
When you find yourself standing in a deep hole, your best bet is to stop digging. Shoveling faster won’t help.
OK Gary.
I don’t see what the big deal is. I remember when I was a kid, I thought machine guns were awesome (Nowadays though, the only thing I don’t like about them is the price tag).
(Nowadays though, the only thing I don’t like about them is the price tag).
My wife and I were out at Knob Creek about three weeks ago and they had an MG-42 in what looked like VG condition on sale for only $4995. Many of us here could easily afford that price as well as the $200 tax. It’s firing the damned thing that gives us pause–1200 rounds per minute is some very expensive noise!
jd
That is a great price. But like you said, it’s expensive to run a gun like that. For every firearm purchase I make, I factor ammo prices into the price tag.
Ah, what I wouldn’t give to have a mint M60…
Hmm. Defacing public art and altering the artist’s statement… seems pretty skanky to me. This is ok just because you like machine guns? Really?
I actually have to agree with Magoo somewhat here. While I think the sculpture looks awesome with the addition, the culprit has defaced someone elses artwork. How this isn’t considered vandalism, I don’t know.
I just assumed that the alteration was legitimate somehow. The police officer acted as if the act was accepted or allowed. He didn’t exactly start filing paper work to track any future acts of vandalism. That’s why I took the whole “What’s the big deal…” position. It seemed like the only point of contention was the machine gun. Now, if it’s illegal to alter public art in Seattle, then they should cut off the machine gun and replace it with a normal arm. Or a Terminator arm, but that’s just my idea, it’s up to who owns the sculpture.
I really don’t like the idea of agreeing with Magoo (It makes me really question whether or not I’ve lost my mind). I do have to say though I love the new version, it really is vandalism.
It’s subversive guerrilla art, which makes it OK in Seattle.
A letter from a man claiming to be the rogue artist explains a little about his motive. “I’ve re-armed your sailor boy sculpture that has was damaged and disintegrating at Meridian Playground by my house. I thought my addition was great, a bit tongue in cheek but a nice addition.” The rest of the letter goes on to ridicule Jeanne.
So the sculpture was broken and rusting away. He just fixed it.
Sounds like rationalizing to me. As the letter makes clear, the guy has no real welding skills. Makes you wonder why he suddenly decided to go into the freelance sculpture “repair” business. Beer-related incident? Hope he stays away from the Picasso at Daley Center Plaza in Chicago.
By the way, I discovered the real artist of the sculptures at Meridian Park is a Seattle artist named Patrick Maher. His work is pretty interesting; check it out. http://reddoorstudiosllc.com/
This could be considered “culture jamming” in a way.
Maybe there are a lot of one-armed sailor children in Jeanne’s past?
If a graffiti artist put a tag over the top of a C.M. Russell painting in an exhibit somewhere, it would certainly be considered vandalism. I don’t see how this is different. If the guy who added the machine gun wants to make sculptures, fine. However, he should make his own sculptures, not “additions” to other artist’s work.
Depends on who owned the statue. If the artist handed it over to the park, and they installed it…it’s public property. If the artist installed it then it’s just like someone painting over a graffitied wall, it may not be polite but it’s not illegal.
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