Why is it illegal to keep a "Picasso" in the City of Waukesha?
I usually ride my bike the rest of the way to work from 5th and Wisconsin in Milwaukee after being let off there by Wisconsin Coach. The weather was nice Tuesday so I detoured west on Canal Street in the Menomonee Valley to see "Nature Bell" up close at the suggestion of Mary Louise Schumacher, a Journal Sentinel arts writer.
Nature Bell is an original, temporary, organic piece,
see video by Roy Staab that I've whizzed past on the 25th Street rotary but never stopped at.
Two minutes after turning right on Canal I noticed Picasso and stopped. As soon as we started talking a woman pulled over and got out of her car. She was wearing a halter top. Picasso was wearing a halter. She's a Marquette student. Picasso is a miniature horse. In a city that used to move on four hooves there are now just two stables in the entire city licensed to have horses. Picasso pays $55.00 to the City of Milwaukee annually to live in his stable on Canal Street.
Continuing on the Hank Aaron Trail near the Menomonee River, past 3 or 4 other sculptures on view through September, I arrived at "Nature Bell" and felt the furry softness of the tall reed sculpture as it swayed in the breeze. Staab's quiet piece offers a wierd contrast to the construction and traffic all around it.
With the outlawing of horses in Waukesha will "Historic Downtown" fall victim to the car the same way "Historic Moor Downs" did?
Will the Glacial Drumlin Trail in Waukesha ever have more sculpture than just the 1950's train wreck remnants west of the city?
6/25 addendumI stand corrected. Picasso is a service animal - a doctor prescribed him - so the city would have to allow him or face stiff fines. To learn more about Picasso
click.
