MANITOU SPRINGS, CO — What’s the difference between an anatomically correct sculpture of a dog and an anatomically correct sculpture of a human? That’s one of the questions that Manitou Springs, CO is struggling with these days, in part because a 10-year-old girl wondered the same thing.Several weeks ago, a bronze statue of a reclining Great Dane — complete with fun bits — was installed in front of Charlie’s Pit BBQ on Manitou Avenue. Two days later, the poor guy was sent to the pound by Mayor Marcy Morrison.
“A lot of people were offended,” local worker Brian Powers is said to have observed to local newspaper, The Independent.
Mayor Morrison insists that the dog wasn’t removed for its scandalous behavior, but because “That was not the dog that we chose from the photograph.” The reason the wrong dog was delivered appears to be because the one in question was sold to someone else, as well. Another dog sculpture but the same artist has since replaced the previous, shameless one.
Things might have ended there had not 10-year-old Cheyne Landrum noticed that equally naked human figures adorned the window display of Nelson’s Antique Bazaar. So much so did this fact bother the young lady that she took her complaint to the Manitou Springs City Council, complete with her mom’s approval. “She thought it was inconsistent that the dog had to go but not the statues,” mother Aimee Cox explained proudly. “She’s very smart that way and wanted to get engaged in civil life, which I encourage. The penises and everything were hanging out at her eye level.”
According to Morrison, he thought the little girl had merely come to share her views, not insist upon action. Instead, city administrator Verne Witham decided to take matters into his own hands and ask antique shop owner Larry Nelson “if he’d consider removing the statues from the window because there was a 10-year-old girl involved.”
Given that Nelson’s shop is privately owned, Witham admits there’s “probably nothing legally we can do about it.”
Nelson, for his money, has found the situation confusing. “They’re not sexual,” he observes about the nude male bronzes. “These are sculptures.” Indeed, they are just a small part of his antique, memorabilia, sword, figurines, and exotic treasure store’s inventory.
Concerned that the city might take action or his store’s merchandise be utterly misinterpreted by the unsympathetic, Nelson taped plastic fig leaves to the better hung statues, although he left more modestly proportioned and female figures as au natural. “I’ve had nude women statues in the window for years,” he explains. “Nobody ever complained.”
When Cox and Landrum wandered past his antique store’s windows later, the little girl was some comforted. “From my daughter’s view, it’s a little better,” Cox agreed, “but there’s still a naked lady lying under a sign that reads ‘May all your Christmas dreams come true.’ I mean, please!”
Apparently unimpressed by a lack of appreciation — or need — for his attempts at inanimate bronze modesty, Nelson has since removed the fig leaves and placed a sign in the window that reads “Art is meant to disturb.”
