"It has been described as a “scary” sight at night — a 400-pound bronze sculpture of Lucille Ball, greeting villagers with zombie-esque eyes and a deranged, toothy grin.
The statue, which stands in a memorial park in her hometown of Celoron, N.Y., has provoked protests and prompted its sculptor to agree to redo it.
“I take full responsibility for ‘Scary Lucy,’ though by no means was that my intent or did I wish to disparage in any way the memories of the iconic Lucy image,” sculptor Dave Poulin said this week in a letter to The Hollywood Reporter.
“Yes, in retrospect,” he added, “it should have never been cast in bronze and made public, and I take complete ownership of that poor decision.”
He will make a new one free, he said.
The statue — unveiled in 2009 at the Lucille Ball Memorial Park in Celoron, a village in far western New York — depicts the famous “Vitameatavegamin” scene from the classic 1950s sitcom I Love Lucy.
Since then, critics have contended that the likeness looks nothing at all like the actress — instead comparing it to Conway Twitty, the snake in Beetlejuice, actor Steve Buscemi or an extra from The Walking Dead.
In 2012, a Facebook group called “We Love Lucy! Get Rid of This Statue” was created to petition for its replacement.
To some folks, the sculpture is more of an insult to Ball — who was born in Jamestown, a city that shares its border with Celoron, where she lived with her mother as a small child.
Even the mayor doesn’t like it, said Buffalo News art critic Colin Dabkowski.
“Despite the fact that the statue bears almost no resemblance to its subject — despite the fact that its deranged grimace and jagged teeth inspire more dread than reverence — tour buses still stop at the park. People still pose for pictures with their arm around Lucy,” he wrote in a recent column. “And Celoron residents are still proud of their village’s role in the life of the First Lady of Comedy, even if some of them privately wish that the statue commemorating her would be struck by lightning.”=====http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/...pture.html
YazataApr 14, 2015 12:25 AM (This post was last modified: Apr 14, 2015 12:30 AM by Yazata.)
That's Lucille Ball?
I agree with the critics, it looks nothing like her and appears positively crazy.
I don't know whether the sculptor was unable to execute a sculpture that looks like its subject, or whether he was trying to express some weird personal vision of Lucy all his own.
Either way, it's good that they are going to remove and redo it at no expense to the park.
Apr 13, 2015 09:26 PM
(This post was last modified: Apr 13, 2015 09:30 PM by Magical Realist.)
![[Image: scary-lucy_1428422353355_16310638_ver1.0_640_480.jpg]](http://media.thedenverchannel.com/photo/2015/04/07/scary-lucy_1428422353355_16310638_ver1.0_640_480.jpg)
![[Image: other1.jpg]](http://www.davepoulinstudios.com/img/portfolio/other/other1.jpg)
![[Image: portrait.jpeg]](http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/h/bobhope/portrait.jpeg)