From the Seattle Mayor's Office

The Seattle Mayor's Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs wants to purchase 2D art from emerging Northwest artists. Correction: They have a $30K budget, they will purchase more than two works, judged by panel... The pieces will go into the Seattle Public Utilities' Portable Works Collection. The deadline for submission is August 25. For more application details, click here.

"special consideration given to colorful artworks"

While I always appreciate public money spent on art, it's horrifying the way that public art programs often lead to curation by committee - and to really bland public art that couldn't possibly offend anyone's sensibilities...

MOR, you are so correct.

The whole public art process is so inbred and full of cousin-humping it's pathetic.

When will I see some public art with some effing SACK?

Ironically, the only one in Portland is Joan of Arc on Glisan. Whoever guilded that statue, please contact me. I will mow your lawn for free. Seriously. Your work has given me that much pleasure and hope.

Yeah, and don't tell me about Portlandia. It suffers from the same Bartholdi/Michelangelo problem of using men for female models. Too scared of anything feminine or sensual in the public realm. "let's stick with the masculine artspeak bullshit."

Public art should be renamed "committee art" because that, in all honesty, is what it is.

There's no realism, because no one wants to commit to anything "real".

Here's a suggestion for all you public art committe members. Choose an Artist, instead of the "piece". Ask what they need to make their project come to fruition. And give them the money and materials to do so.

Then cross your fingers.

If the piece works, you all can claim credit. If not, the artist will crash and burn. And you can point the blame. Simple enough.

Thank you for allowing me to comment.

Upon reflection, I think some of my comments may have been a little crass.

My apologies in advance if I offended anyone. I'll try to edit myself better in the future.

The lawn offer is still good though.

Thank you.

Hey Sean --

Thanks for the good Picasso quote on that other thread.

Public art gets people all riled up... no need to apologize really. I really like that Joan of Arc sculpure too, she can pull off the bling.

One thing though, I think Seattle does a MUCH better job of putting ballsy public art in fron of people than Portland does. Chicago does it better than any modern city in the last 60 years.

Portland has changed a lot in the last 10-15 years so the question now should be does the public art Portland puts out there reflect the change in cajones the art scene has experienced? It's natural for the the public art to lag somewhat behind the scene but does the public art simply follow the the real scene's wake? What if it provoked the way Sharf''s tiki totems in the Pearl did nearly 10 years ago? Where are the projects that have similar balls? It isnt an easy thing to start doing. It takes leadership like a paige Powell or Mayor Dailey to make happen. Committee are what they are... if there arent any real leaders on the comittee you can almost predict the outcome.

Hopefully Bruce Conkle's thing for Trimet actually happens? Ive heard about some good things for the I-205/Clackamas light rail line.