-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Wasilla Alaska, the hometown of ex half-governor Sarah Palin, is in the news again. Artists Jim Dault and Shala Dobson were commissioned to create an outdoor sculpture for Wasilla High School. The $100,000 work of art is entitled “The Warrior Within” and is pictured on the left.
The problem? Some parents and students think it looks like … girlie parts.
The principal, Amy Spargo, has put a tarp over the sculpture because of complaints that it vaguely resembles a vulva. That high school students would display such juvenile thinking is understandable, but the reaction of the parents is mind boggling.
Spargo claims the tarp isn’t censorship, it’s there to protect the sculpture. Spargo is concerned vandals might damage the artwork. There’s a teachable moment in leadership, caving in to threats of vandalism.
The design of the sculpture was presented to the art committee and the school board, and was given a green light. They obviously didn’t take into account the anatomy-challenged philistines of Wasilla.
H/T: Pharyngula, The Mudflats, LA Times, Frontiersman.
Sarah Palin’s former high school promotes its Math Teacher to Assistant Principal after **** spends 5 days in jail and is put on 3 years of probation. It’s Wasilla High School in the Mat-Su School district. The school district employee who was fresh out of jail and out on probation when **** was promoted from Math Teacher to Assistant Principal is ****. The local newspaper, “The Frontiersman,” is afraid to report this story because of the powerful local politics.
if you type dault or dobson into the search function at the bottom of http://artsceneak.net/artsceneak_index.htm it will offer other images and articles about these very popular artists in Alaska. The 1% for Art program in Alaska takes no money from the budgets of educators and robs no classrooms of their electronic devices and is not unique, as many other states and cities have similar legislation. What is unique is Alaska’s record capital budgets, which funds the construction of public buildings, which qualify to be beautified. As for what a Spenardtist is, Spenard is a former suburb of the original Anchorage tent camp on Ship Creek, now absorbed into the city while still retaining a local character, and many working art studios. Thank you all for having such comical opinions from so far away!
$100K on a piece of rock called “art.” The Wasilla High School parking lot had dozens of sticks (i.e., Birch “trees”) planted last year that were $579.99 each and are a tiny 2 inches in diameter and grow like weeds in Wasilla. The good-ole boy, corrupt kick-back operation is in full swing and in full view. It’s hard to imagine that these community leaders are THIS incompetent – it’s has to be corruption; no one is this dumb – not even Alaskans. Meanwhile, the same school district is cutting teachers’ positions, eliminating retirement and attempting pay freezes for the “lucky” survivors while the state’s coffers are bursting with cash from $100 (and higher) per barrel oil revenues.
Well, we better start dismantling the Washington Monument, because if there ever was a giant penis…
Blouise,
I’m shocked. You usually speak very much English. 😉
Good lord, what a god-awful sentence that was. My apologies for sloppiness.