Healdsburg public sculpture with a Homer Simpson look

Healdsburg's latest proposed piece of public art is an odd bit of whimsy, an unconventional sculpture that appears guaranteed to turn heads and provoke comment.

It's a "living room" scene, complete with sofa, rug, end table, lamp, telephone and painting.

Constructed of metal and ceramic, the living room is proposed for the northern end of the downtown on the Foss Creek Pathway and could be in place by springtime if the City Council approves the concept at its Jan. 3 meeting.

It will be functional art, giving neighbors a place to sit and wait for a bus or a ride, said Ray Holley, spokesman for the Voigt Family Sculpture Foundation, which has placed public art in Healdsburg, Santa Rosa, Petaluma and Cloverdale.

"It will draw visitors and residents, it will become a &‘photo op' and we believe it will become a meeting place, with &‘meet you at the sofa' a common phrase in the community," Holley wrote in his proposal to City Council members.

So far, there's been no controversy associated with the piece, or worries that it might attract napping vagrants.

In the conceptual drawing, which resembles a cartoon, the sofa looks like something Homer Simpson might stretch out on while watching TV.

"The Voigt family has donated quite a few pieces of art over the past few years to place on the Foss Creek Pathway or in Giorgi Park. They've always been well received," said former mayor Kent Mitchell. He's chairman of the city Parks and Recreation Commission, which last month approved the conceptual drawing of the sculpture.

Mitchell admitted he will be curious "to lie down and see how comfortable (the sofa) is."

But as far as attracting the homeless, he said they tend to "be under the wire and not highly visible" in Healdsburg.

The living room sculpture would be placed north of City Hall and adjacent to Grant Street Village, an affordable housing project that opened earlier this year.

Voigt Foundation curator Debra Lehane said the art installation "honors the ordinary as extraordinary," in the tradition of Claes Oldenburg, or Andy Warhol.

Having a sofa alone might seem as though someone had abandoned the object by the side of the road. "Instead we opted to give it a context. For many, the living room represents the nucleus of the family. It's iconic," she said.

Holley said the piece could look different by the time it's complete. The drawing was put together by Mario Uribe, who among other things collaborated on the giant concrete and steel leaping fish at the head of Prince Memorial Greenway, along Santa Rosa Creek, in downtown Santa Rosa.

"It's kind of a concept at this point. The detail could evolve during the artistic process," Holley said. "We thought it would be fun to create something really memorable there."

He said the armature, or metal framework, for the living room will be created in the Voigt Family foundation's sophisticated metal shop. Teenagers in the "ArtStart" program would cover it in ceramic tile.

Mitchell said an attractive aspect of the art work is that it's free to the taxpayer. The city agrees only to pay for routine and minor maintenance of the art pieces.

"They're interesting and provocative and people seem to enjoy and appreciate their works of art," Mitchell said of the foundation's projects.