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newsworthyDIANE FINDLEY |
| Tag! You're
art! City fights graffiti with art project By STACY NICK - StacyNick@coloradoan.com For years, downtown Fort Collins has had a wicked game of tag going on, but local artists are hoping they'll be the last ones to be "it." In a fight against graffiti and tagging, as well as an effort to beautify downtown, Fort Collins Utilities and the city of Fort Collins initiated the Art in Public Places Program, which asks area artists to place art in unexpected places throughout the city, including transforming the very utilitarian electrical transformer boxes (one of the most common graffiti targets) into something beautiful.  Fort Collins painter Diane Findley can see the allure of the large
"blank canvas" the cabinets provide. "Who wouldn't
want that?" Findley said Wednesday as she worked on her latest
piece, "Red Sky," in the alley east of Walrus Ice Cream
Co. off of Mountain Avenue.Before the project started in October, the six initial transformer cabinets selected for the program were vandalized at least once every two weeks, Wayne Sterler said. The Fort Collins Utilities safety and training supervisor has the unpleasant job of sending out crews to cleanup the cabinets. Since they were decorated? "Zero," Sterler said. "So far, this project has been 100 percent effective." Just before the next six transformers were to be painted last week, the city primed the boxes and Findley got an early start on hers, doing a rough sketch on it. In what Sterler likened to a vandals "coming-out party" that weekend, cabinets from Horsetooth Road all the way to LaPorte Avenue, including several that had just been primed for the project, were hit with graffiti. But not Findley's. In a warped way, it's like they didn't deface it out of respect for the art, she guessed, adding that, just in case, she included an "evil eye" in her painting to ward off vandals. In actuality, the bright colors and intricate designs chosen are the murals' best defenses, said Kraig Bader, Utilities electric standards engineering manager. Vandals see the transformer cabinets as available and visible space, said Bader, who initiated the project after a conversation with a co-worker about how many times he had cleaned the same cabinet. "With the bright colors, it just wouldn't make sense to them to put their tag there because it would just blend in," he said. "These 'artists,' if you want to call them 'artists,' are always looking for a good spot where their work will show up really well. With this project, the cabinets are no longer a good canvas." The fact that at least some vandals will simply "move on" to a better canvas - such as a business's wall - doesn't escape Bader. But it keeps their equipment maintenance costs down and that, in turn, keeps utility rates down. Sanding, priming and resealing one transformer cabinet costs about $250 and 20 to 30 man hours, Bader said. Not all three steps are followed every time a vandal strikes; it might just be sanded and primed, which still runs about $200. Compared with the $1,200 to $2,600 (depending on the size of the cabinet) each artist is paid, the project comes out to be a pretty good deal. It's made even better, thanks to a special sealant used on the finished works that, should any of them meet with can of spray paint, make cleanup easy without damaging the mural. And that's especially important in a town where art takes center stage. The goal was to find local artists who could really represent the city with their work, said Anne Bossert, Art in Public Places project manager. Last year, local artist Amelia Caruso worked on all six of the transformers. This year, the program was opened up to other local artists, including Chris Bates, Susan Dailey and Barry Lee. Local artists say the project has also made them more aware of the vandalism problem. "I've been on (graffiti) patrol since I started this project; I never noticed it before, and now I see it everywhere," Findley said, pointing out several nearby garbage bins and an unpainted transformer cabinet that had been doused in yellow paint just the night before. When she first started working on "Red Sky," Findley said a lot of passers-by didn't say anything as she, as far as they knew, defaced public property. "It was like they didn't want to know," she said. The very law-abiding artist added that it was kind of a rush to be hanging out in an alley with a can of spray paint (even though the paint had actually been provided by the city to be used on the tall concrete posts protecting the transformer boxes from cars). It's not the Guggenheim - a lot of unpleasant and unsanitary things can happen in alleyways, Findley said, reminded of arriving to paint earlier that day to find trash, including a pair of underwear, next to her "canvas." This is down and dirty, she said. But what place could possibly be more in need of a little beauty? Caption: Local artist Diane Findley puts the finishing touches on a transformer box in an Old Town alley Wednesday as part of the city's new program to fight tagging and graffiti. V. Richard Haro/The Coloradoan |
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