Artists paint statues of famous 'Peanuts' character for public display, auction

Charlie Brown, round-headed hero of the "Peanuts" comic strip, started a whole series of extreme make-overs Wednesday after wearing a yellow shirt with a zig-zag stripe for half a century.

Armed with spray paint and glue guns, artists went to work on 52 Charlie Brown statues in a warehouse north of Santa Rosa, as a long-planned public art project called "It's Your Town, Charlie Brown" got started.

Artists gave one 5-foot-5-inch polyurethane Charlie Brown a Hawaiian shirt, and another a Superman suit. One artist team lavished a head full of dreadlocks on the perennially bald Charlie.

On May 22, the statues will go on display at malls, on the streets and in front of businesses all over Santa Rosa.

At Old Courthouse Square, a 10-foot-tall replica of Snoopy's doghouse will serve as the project's headquarters, dispensing maps showing the location of all the statues and selling "Peanuts" memorabilia.

All of the statues will be moved to the square for public viewing for two weeks in September. They will go up for auction Sept. 25 at the Snoopy's Home Ice arena to raise money for a bronze sculpture of Charlie Brown and Linus at the Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport, and for two art scholarships.

A few artists began working at the Airport Boulevard warehouse as early as Monday, and three statues were done even earlier.

Work on the rest is expected to continue day and night through Sunday.

Craig Schulz, son of late "Peanuts" creator Charles M. Schulz, has been getting the donated work space ready for the past month.

"This space hasn't been used for probably 15 years," Schulz said. "We had to clean it out and install the lights.

"He made it all happen," said Sebastopol landscape painter Jack Stuppin, nodding at Schulz.

Stuppin and his assistant, Jennifer Beckham, brought 46pounds of peanuts to the work party, but not for snacks.

They glued peanuts all over their Charlie Brown statue, which will be covered in gold-leaf paint and titled "Gold Rush."

It will stand in front of the Sonoma County Museum in downtown Santa Rosa.

Mosaic artist Ellen Blakeley, of Santa Rosa, glued tiny bits of shattered safety glass on a statue she was covering with pictures of "Peanuts" characters clipped from a book.

"I just want to make my Charlie really good, out of respect for Charles Schulz," she said. "I hadn't seriously read any of his work for a couple of decades, but when I got involved in this project it really blew my mind how brilliant he was."

Healdsburg watercolorist Richard Sheppard plans to put up a plastic pipe telescope on a tripod to go with his statue, titled "Universally Loved" and destined for a spot at Santa Rosa City Hall.

"I am going to paint Snoopy and Woodstock on the back and side of Charlie's head as constellations of stars," Sheppard said.

The public is invited to watch the artists at work from 3 to 7 p.m. today and noon to 5p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the former Weigh-Tronix site at 2320 Airport Blvd., Building 100.

First conceived as "Peanuts on Parade," the statue project ended a five-year fund-raising run last fall in St. Paul, Minn., childhood home of Charles Schulz, who moved to Sonoma County in 1958.

Schulz died in 2000 after writing and drawing the comic strip for nearly 50 years.

Created by TivoliToo Designs and Sculpting Studios of St. Paul, which supplied the statues for "Peanuts on Parade," the statues cost $3,000 apiece to make.

Businesses, nonprofit groups and individuals are sponsoring statues at $5,000 each, with $1,000 of that going to the artist and the rest covering manufacturing, shipping and other costs.