· Remove the existing art. Select a new artist to work with the neighborhood.
· Complete the artwork as originally designed, including work not yet installed.
When the final votes were tallied, 558 of the respondents said they wanted to get rid of the artwork, while 275 said artist Paul Edwards should have a chance to finish it.
Survey participants were also invited to sound off. Comments from those who wanted to remove the art included:
· Please send the old art to Iraq!
· The current art looks like a busted sewer pipe with shit coming out of it ... Tell the "artist" that if we want to see shit, we'll look in our toilets.
· This is an abomination and should be removed and erected in the artist/architect's own yards. Furthermore, an immediate investigation should proceed into why this pair have been awarded so many city art contracts.
· Considering the surrounding construction and the length of the project on Mountain Avenue, did it ever cross anyone's mind that the "art" would only look like unfinished construction? I won't even get into the choice of colors.
· Just eliminate it!
· When the people have chosen what they want in their neighborhood (and have indicated what they don't want), and in their city parks, and in front of their library, then and only then should a contract be awarded to an artist to produce what he or she is told to produce.
· As a professional artist/sculptor, I am shocked by the retarded creativity exhibited by the artists whose work is installed on Mountain Avenue.
· The results at Glenn and Fort Lowell appear to be the effects of an enema introduced to the storm drain at Grant Road.
· I hate it!
· Remove the ugly eyesore--spend money on parks and rec playground.
· It belongs at the water treatment plant. The wildlife may love it.
· It looks terrible and is degrading to Tucson.
· No oozing of sewage!
· Please don't refer to this ugly sewer pipe as art. I don't believe anyone would spend tax dollars on such rubbish!
· This is not art. This pompous person should go back to painting fences for a living.
· I respect artists' creative license but sewer art is not funny ... I have never wanted to deface private or public gov't property but this makes me so angry I'd love to take a hatchet to it and would have fun doing it. Upside-down dinosaur feet at Glenn and Mountain is the laugh of the town.
· Please, no more "shock and awe" from city-hired architects, vis-à-vis public art.
· We don't need any artwork.
· Please let my kids paint the stupid thing with color. Just buy me the paint at Ace Hardware and I'll do it for free on weekends.
· What the hell were you thinking with these growth-like things? This neighborhood looks like hell already. Art is not going to help the shabby houses and apartments.
· We don't need obnoxious so-called "art" when there are many thing that we can be proud of and to uplift the city.
· Very ugly. Cost of artwork was phenomenal.
· At this time especially we need beauty, not ugly monuments to (crap) CAP water ... We are all in this together. Money and status does not necessarily make an evolved being.
· This is the most disturbing (so-called art) I have ever seen. It looks like c - - p coming out of a broken sewer line and a troll buried in the ground with its feet sticking up.
· I can find no definition of "art" that can be applied to this situation. I would recommend that the perpetrator of these abominations be charged with vandalism and the resulting fine be used for tasteful beautification.
· I thought Tucson was being attacked by the Blob.
· Use downtown maybe.
· How about a selection process for this sort of thing which includes citizens with a degree in Common Sense?
· Put something to show respect for WWII.
· Use money for street potholes.
· If the artist calls brown the color of water maybe we could him a box of Crayolas--water is blue.
· When I first saw the "artwork" I thought it was some sort of joke--a temporary thing.
· This is the ugliest sculpture we have ever seen. To be frank, it is obscene.
· Why waste the money on "art" work to begin with? It's just a neighborhood; an old one at that.
· More $ $ $ down the "drain" idiots!!!
· Get this man's garbage off the streets, it looks like s**t.
· Poop! Looks like poop!
· Anything would be an improvement.
THOSE WHO WANTED to complete the artwork also spoke out:
· Keep the art
· I think it's incredible!
· A few cranky senior citizens shouldn't determine Tucson's future.
· I didn't realize that this area had so many "distinguished" and "self-styled" art critics. If these critics are going looking for instant visual art gratification, they should go back to viewing their animated cartoons, fortified with pizza, beer and fries.
· As an artist myself, I cannot allow the removal of the work as much as I dislike it.
· I like it. It's very Tucson.
· Art should broaden our minds, not narrow our perspective.
· The public seems incompetent to judge public art. Ignore the philistines and proceed with the project.
· I think it is beautiful. Should have more of it.
· Tucson public art takes risks and I think that is a good thing.
· I don't want art selections to be based on the lowest common denominator. If the public votes, all we'll have is snakes and lizards. I don't particularly like the installation in question, but I'm a big fan of diversity in art.
· Constantly second-guessing and changing to suit everyone's whim simply raises the cost and leads to mediocrity.
· I pass the sculpture almost every day and find them quite delightful--a laugh I definitely need in traffic.
· I like the brown tiles. Desert water is brown. Blue would be like a "Disney" version. The overall design will flow and pull it all together.
· True art is that which goes beyond the individual and speaks from the collective unconscious. It is not always pleasing as decorative art is. Could it be the Mountain Avenue art forces us to see how our water supply will look if we continue with our present rate of population growth and water consumption? No wonder people are disturbed.
· The new Mountain Avenue street improvement is just wonderful, and it becomes even more beautiful with the addition of public art.
· All new concepts or ideas are originally rejected. Let us celebrate creativity, diversity and the artist's rights.
· It is absurd that 2,400 people are being used to decide the fate of art that the entire city of Tucson paid for and approved.
· Art is not supposed to match your couch. Leave it alone!
· There is no art that pleases everyone ... Tell the complainers to GET OVER IT!
· Keep it. I kinda like the barf art.
· I wish the politicians would quit stopping activities just because a few whiners and chronic complainers have nothing better to do than voice their objection.
· I really don't see what all the fuss is about
· People didn't like Picasso and Van Gogh at first either.
