Signs of creativity on the street

Puzzled by a series of provocative street signs that have turned up recently around downtown Santa Rosa?

Wondering about directives to ?Whisper? or ?Sing,? or notifications like ?Lomping prohibited? atop bent, twisty poles?

Turns out, that?s kind of the point, according to the artists involved.

?It?s a puzzle, sort of,? said Santa Rosa artist Mary Vaughan, who coordinates the ArtStart summer youth program responsible for the sign project.

Maria Carrillo High School senior Jacob McAdam, for instance, designed one sign with the word ?Frost? against bright flames, and another with ?Blaze? on an icy background deliberately to provoke confusion.

?I swapped them so it would play around and mess people up,? McAdam said.

?The signs are there just to bring a smile to people?s faces,? said Mario Uribe, ArtStart?s creative director. ?They?re just fun.?

The signs, 10 of them installed about five weeks ago, are the result of an apprentice art program through ArtStart, a nonprofit educational arts program.

ArtStart, which hires kids between 15 and 21 each summer to contribute to public arts programs around Santa Rosa under the tutelage of professional artists, is behind decorative benches and murals around the city, as well.

Uribe conceived the sign project about six years ago but didn?t make it happen before this summer?s youth art program.

Three young people assigned to the project, working with Uribe and artist Tony Spiers, came up with most of the words, phrases and visual designs.

They worked through hundreds of sketches and drafts, Vaughan said, a distillation of ideas aimed at creating simple yet fun and thought-provoking pieces.

Santa Rosa Junior College student Jaclyn Finkle, 21, remembers working mainly on stripping down her initial ideas.

?It was hard because they wanted it really simple, but I was excited to paint a bunch of stuff,? Finkle said.

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McAdam had a similar story. Some early ideas like ?homeostasis,? ?equilibrium,? and a profile of teeth with the word ?bite? didn?t pass muster, he said.

?Tony would come look at them and say, ?I like this one. Develop this one in three different ways? or ?This one is totally off track,?

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he said. END OPTIONAL 2-GRAF TRIM?Realizing that a city that is rich with art and culture is a city worth visiting and living in, we want to make the city fun and interesting,? said Vicky Kumpfer, art coordinator for the city?s Recreation and Parks Department.There also was an effort to keep the concepts non-threatening and positive so as to avoid upsetting anyone, Uribe said.But a few instances of slight feather-ruffling occurred nonetheless.A sign near several galleries on South A Street that originally said ?Confess? was changed to ?Relax? when one stakeholder objected after learning the sign was to be placed in front of her building.It is now scheduled to be moved a short distance up the block because it interferes with new signs on the gallery, which has been renamed.Two paired signs on Fifth Street off Mendocino Avenue ? McAdam?s ?Frost? piece and another with drawn hands signing the word ?Sign? in American Sign Language ? also are going to be moved from their place against the wall of Ausiello?s 5th Street Grill.Owner Armand Ausiello said he was surprised to see the signs go up against his wall after he declined a request to have a mural painted there and said he later questioned the safety of pedestrians along the narrow stretch of sidewalk.Ausiello said he doesn?t object to art or even the signs in general, and says the signs are on public property so any liability rests with the city.But ?because it?s up against my building I get a lot of inquiries about it: ?What the hell is that? Why is that there?? It?s like someone getting right up in your face. If they were five feet away, they wouldn?t bother you.?Vaughan, whose studio will soon have the ?Relax? sign in front, said she?s thrilled with the idea and already knows of people who?ve been traveling around town hunting down the signs the way they have ?Peanuts? statues in past years. Others agree.?It?s a great idea,? said Barbara Harris, who runs the Of Sea and Heaven Gallery, which requested the sign be moved. ?Sort of a spontaneous surprise.?You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com.

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The city of Santa Rosa, which provided blank signs and other materials and approved the sites, also had a vote on the concepts as part of its Art in Public Places program.

?Realizing that a city that is rich with art and culture is a city worth visiting and living in, we want to make the city fun and interesting,? said Vicky Kumpfer, art coordinator for the city?s Recreation and Parks Department.

There also was an effort to keep the concepts non-threatening and positive so as to avoid upsetting anyone, Uribe said.

But a few instances of slight feather-ruffling occurred nonetheless.

A sign near several galleries on South A Street that originally said ?Confess? was changed to ?Relax? when one stakeholder objected after learning the sign was to be placed in front of her building.

It is now scheduled to be moved a short distance up the block because it interferes with new signs on the gallery, which has been renamed.

Two paired signs on Fifth Street off Mendocino Avenue ? McAdam?s ?Frost? piece and another with drawn hands signing the word ?Sign? in American Sign Language ? also are going to be moved from their place against the wall of Ausiello?s 5th Street Grill.

Owner Armand Ausiello said he was surprised to see the signs go up against his wall after he declined a request to have a mural painted there and said he later questioned the safety of pedestrians along the narrow stretch of sidewalk.

Ausiello said he doesn?t object to art or even the signs in general, and says the signs are on public property so any liability rests with the city.

But ?because it?s up against my building I get a lot of inquiries about it: ?What the hell is that? Why is that there?? It?s like someone getting right up in your face. If they were five feet away, they wouldn?t bother you.?

Vaughan, whose studio will soon have the ?Relax? sign in front, said she?s thrilled with the idea and already knows of people who?ve been traveling around town hunting down the signs the way they have ?Peanuts? statues in past years. Others agree.

?It?s a great idea,? said Barbara Harris, who runs the Of Sea and Heaven Gallery, which requested the sign be moved. ?Sort of a spontaneous surprise.?

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com.