‘Fish Statue’ in Santa Rosa gets a makeover: new tiles, new grout, TLC

If the colors on that 18-foot rainbow trout shimmering above the concrete in downtown Santa Rosa seem to pop more than usual these days, thank the creative souls at Artstart.

Looking a bit dingy, the 11-year-old “fish statue,” as it is known by locals, was treated to “a full bath and a lot of new tile,” said Angelina Duckett, a lead artist at Artstart.

Artstart is the Sonoma County nonprofit that contracts with Santa Rosa for the creation and installation of public art projects, including the “Guardian of the Creek,” the proper name of the giant, mosaic-covered fish at the entrance of the Prince Memorial Greenway Trail.

The Guardian, it turns out, is defenseless against the ravages of time and the elements.

“There were a lot of cracks, a lot of tile was falling off,” Duckett said. “It needed some TLC.”

The city budgeted $12,000 for the refurbishment of the vast trout, whose problems included grout that had in many places turned dark with mold.

Also, Duckett said, “there were all these little mossy hairs coming out of the fish’s head.”

Those tendrils have been trimmed, the tile and grout repaired and replaced. The monthlong cleanup, conducted by Artstart, was completed Thursday.

Duckett, a mosaic artist, was a 17-year-old Artstart apprentice in the summer of 2008, when the sculpture was installed. She did much of the tilework on the fish, which was designed by Mario Uribe and has proved vulnerable - and not ?only to the weather.

To simulate a creek’s ripple, artists included a small wave in the concrete at the base of the sculpture, a feature skateboarders could not resist. After repairing the damage to the fish’s tail, city workers installed a short but tasteful cast iron barricade to guard the Guardian.