The heron has landed: 'Public art becomes part of our community'
EUGENE, Ore. - Eularee Smith and her granddaughter Isa Byrum woke up with the best intentions of welcoming the great blue heron to town.
"My granddaughter and I were in bed this morning and saw it on the news, and we wanted to get down here before school so we could see it," Smith told KVAL News. "We didn't make it. So I told her I would drop her off at school and go take a picture of it and send it to her."
Byrum, 9, went to class at O'Hara Catholic School while her grandmother watched crews fix the bird to its new roost at the corner of 13th Avenue and Alder Street.
"I think it's awesome. I think it's a really cool thing and we watched how they put it together," Smith said. "They said it weighed 1,400 lbs and said they had to get it right on the bolts right, so it was very exciting this morning.
"So I'm sorry that she got to miss it," Smith said, "but I'm taking pictures."
There will be more opportunities for pictures: a community gathering at the heron is planned for 11:30 a.m. on Saturday as part of the City of Eugene's official 150th birthday party.
Residents are invited to bring a flower to welcome the heron, then take part in a procession to the Hult Center for the rest of the party.
The concept for the 16-foot-tall statue was selected from a national competitive search.
The winner, however, was born a block away from the statue's location at Sacred Heart Hospital and attends the University of Oregon, a block away in the other direction, said Isaac Marquez, Public Art Manager for the City of Eugene.
"Jud Turner during the time he started his commission quit his day job and is now working as a full-time artist," Marquez said. "We think it's great that he was selected to do this piece for Eugene 150th birthday for this location."
Turner uses found objects to craft his sculpture. Passersby will be able to view both the big picture and the small details - up close and personal, if they so desire.
"We expect this piece to be handled. I think people will climb it," Marquez said. "I think people will adorn it. That's part of the way public art becomes part of our community is they involve themselves with it."
Crews moved the statue into position in the wee hours Thursday morning so as not to interfere with Lane Transit District busses and other university traffic.
It didn't take long for people to notice.
"I knew something was going to in there," said David Carmichael of Eugene. "It's a fine piece of artwork, I'd say."
"I just like saw it walking here this morning," said Danielle Lagnston, a freshman studying chemistry at the UO. "It was kind of weird. I was like, where did that come from? It's really unexpected."
Nice Art...In my opinion this is the wrong location...University district...what does a heron have to do with people intering into the University district...What does a Heron have to do with the 150th birthday. I'm trying to figure it out, University of Oregon Ducks, education, Eugebe founders, hmmm a 16ft Heron.. Confusing.
Judd has always been an incredible artist. I recall a wicked Insect mask he made out of pancake mix and newspapers for a Halloween costume party over in the Whiteaker neighborhood in the early 1990's. He told me while I was trying it on that if I was ever to be in the wilderness while wearing the mask I wouldn't have to worry about starving to death because I could eat the mask since it was made out of pancake mix. Pretty much perfect.