Guitar art from the heart

Whimsical creations for Gibson's fundraising project in Austin are headed for the auction block.

By Shermakaye Bass
FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Friday, July 06, 2007

There's a saying in this town: You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a musician. Now add giant guitars. Ten-foot tall Les Pauls.

Part of the philanthropically geared "GuitarTown" project, presented by Gibson Guitar, the sculptures started cropping up last fall. Now they're everywhere — 35 of them, clad like flashy rock stars, sporting coats of glam-gold mosaic, tree twigs, snakeskin, shards of computer parts, the faces of famous musicians, the signatures of luminaries, a grackle ...

GuitarTown, that's us.

Actually, the concept is not original. Our guitars are like Chicago's famous cow parade — a public-art installation that doubles as a fundraiser; the herd later migrated to Kansas City, Houston, London and New York, raising millions of dollars for charities. In Austin (and before us, Nashville, where Gibson is based and where the GuitarTown concept debuted), hundreds of artists answered a call for submissions last spring. Three dozen were chosen to paint, plaster, decorate, sculpt, illuminate or somehow elevate the 10-foot fiberglass structures, and 35 more artists were selected to do the same on actual Les Pauls (most of those are on display at Wild About Music and the KXAN-TV lobby).

Now the guitars are in the last leg of their proverbial tour. After hanging out in front of businesses and city plazas for a year, the guitars, large and small, will hit the auction block this fall, raising money for four local organizations that benefit artists: Health Alliance for Austin Musicians (HAAM), Austin Museum of Art, Austin YouthWorks and Austin Children's Museum.

"Many, many cities have started this genre of public art and fundraising," says Mayor Will Wynn, a GuitarTown honorary chairman, along with country icon Ray Benson. " ... And what I really like about it in Austin is the concept of teaming up our fabulous local musicians with the great visual artists in this town. That highlights two aspects of our creative culture."

An exact date for the auction hasn't been set, but an Austin gala will be held some time in October, Wynn says. The auction will likely take place in November — on www.juliensauctions.com — and if it goes as well as Nashville's GuitarTown auction did, it could raise $500,000 or more.

It appears some people haven't known what to make of these fragile sculptural works. Some boneheads have tried to "tune" Robert Jones' "Sharp Axe," which usually stands outside the Elephant Room, breaking off the large fiberglass tuning keys.

"I think people stand on them or try to play with them for photo ops," Jones says. " 'Sharp Axe' is in the shop right now getting some repairs, but we'll have it back out soon."

Bumpersticker bandits have taken a shine to Sara Hickman's "Keep Austin Weird" piece outside RunTex, which is plastered with many of the singer's own handmade stickers.

"I've noticed that some people have started putting their own stickers on there, and I think that's cool," Hickman says. "It's interactive. It's like a living guitar, and it's kind of staying within that tradition of 'Keep Austin Weird.' "

XL also took a shine to some of those tall, lanky guitars. Using absolutely no method related to science, we chose 11 guitars to highlight. Enjoy them before they hit the auction block. But don't molest them. You wouldn't want someone climbing around on your own precious Les Paul, now would you?

11 select guitars

• Photo gallery: The ten-foot guitars

'Cybertar'

Where: Outside the Littlefield Building, 106 E. Sixth St.

S.C. Essai's sly 'Cybertar' communicates on multiple levels. Made from 'dead computer parts' Essai has collected over her years working in the tech industry, the geek-chic guitar represents Austin to the core. 'This is sort of a way to merge elements of Austin, merge the high-tech with the music,' she says. 'I'm one of not a whole lot of people whose art is made from spare computer parts. And the name I use is part of the art itself. SCSI is an abbreviation that stands for Small Computer Systems Interface.' Very clever. Essai painted the individual pieces and worked diligently to sculpt them into the (difficult, it turns out) contours of her fiberglass canvas.

'Keep Austin Weird'

Where: Outside RunTex, 422 W. Riverside Drive

Campy, quirky, very Sara Hickman. The singer-songwriter (cum bumpersticker artist) is known for expressing her opinions in a cheery yet purposeful way, and she does it in a visual format this time. For her design, Hickman plastered her Les Paul with bumper stickers, many of them made by the singer herself. As the guitar's name implies, the project is all about local heroes and locally owned businesses, with some political commentary thrown in, including a sticker touting a 'Universal Working Wage.' Another proclaims, 'Austin Sucks: Don't Move Here.' There are more than 1,500 in all. Exposed to the elements for the past six months, the guitar's adhesive pith has begun to sort of melt, which is fine by Hickman. 'If someone local buys it, they'll get a lifetime guarantee that I'll come and fix it up, update it, every so often. So we'll have a close working relationship.'

'Sharp Axe'

Where: Outside the Elephant Room, 315 Congress Ave. (temporarily removed for repairs)

Robert Jones' 'Sharp Axe' is a paean to his own musical past, as well as the city's, as well as African Americans' in general. Incorporated into the guitar's collage is a portrait of Blind Lemon Jefferson (top right), a gospel group inspired by his father's former band (bottom left) and a profile of good ole Stevie Ray Vaughan on the headstock. The keyboard painted on the guitar's neck was inspired in part by Jones' affection for late, great Texas pianist Gray Ghost. Jones is a guitarist himself. 'I wanted to express some of the things I've learned through my dad and through the history of African Americans in the music business. ... The name 'Sharp Axe' is a term that was used when I was growing up. A musician would bring his "axe," his tool, to a show, and if it was tuned and ready to go, it was called a sharp axe.' A historian and artist in every sense, Jones is exhibit coordinator for the Washington Carver Museum.

'Por Vida'

Where: Outside Waterloo Records, 600 N. Lamar Blvd.

A former Texas Monthly art director, Kathy Marcus has perhaps the most appropriate site of all the 10-foot guitars: Waterloo Records, which is owned by her husband, John Kunz. Her guitar, 'Por Vida,' was inspired by vintage Mexican black lacquered-flower patterns (once found on platters in rummage sales and now virtually impossible to find), a pattern she used to decorate Chris Layton's drums back when he played for Stevie Ray Vaughan. Look to the top right of the body of Marcus' Les Paul, just below the cut-away, and you'll see a painted photo of Clifford Antone. 'Clifford was at our wedding at the Broken Spoke — April 30 of last year — and it was one of the last times a lot of people saw him. (Antone died May 23, 2006.) Todd V. Wolfson had taken a picture of him ... and when I started my guitar, I realized "How can I possibly paint a guitar in Austin, Texas, without paying tribute to Clifford Antone?" ' Several other GuitarTown artists thought the same, including the Brothers Ferraro, whose painted guitar stands sentry in front of Antone's club.

'Striking Texas Gold'

Where: Outside the Blanton Museum of Art, Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. at Congress Avenue

'Striking Texas Gold,' an elegant gold mosaic piece, probably took all the patience Dianne Sonnenberg could summon. She worked on it for six weeks straight, almost six hours a day. 'When I started brainstorming on the design, I kept coming up with "gold" – gold records, gold equals success. And I love shiny things,' the artist says. 'Mosaic is a very detailed process, painstakingly slow, so I invited a lot of people to come help, and it became sort of a community project.' Sonnenberg used gold tile, gold stained glass, gold mirror flecks and tempered glass over gold paint. And her idea to go for the gold seemed to manifest something bigger: It's been signed by gold-record artists the Dixie Chicks.

'Trip to the Light Fantastic'

Where: Outside Guero's, 1412 S. Congress Ave.

Aly Winningham's stunning 'Trip to the Light Fantastic' glimmers with 10,000-plus chunks of glass and copper and weighs more than 250 pounds. Unlike some of the other, lighter guitars (including Robert Jones' 'Sharp Axe,' which has endured wind damage), 'Trip' isn't going anywhere until the auction this fall. Apparently, it was a true labor of love and determination for Winningham. 'I'd thought from the tiny little drawing on the Web site that the guitar was going to be a lot smaller,' the mosaic artist/installationist says. 'When I went to get it, I almost turned around and left. It was so huge! But it turned out to be such an exciting project, and it benefits other artists. I mean, when would I ever get to mosaic a 10-foot-tall guitar that someone just gave me. In a way, it was kind of the one chance I would ever have to contribute to the music scene here.'

'Gibskin'

Where: Outside Ranch 616, 616 Nueces St.

He's sort of a snakeskin cowboy himself, so it's little surprise that sculptor/installationist Bob 'Daddyo' Wade swathed his Les Paul in snakeskin vinyl and dubbed it 'Gibskin.' Wade is known for animal sculptures, often large, two-headed hooved ones like the cow on top of the County Line restaurant. And when he realized his GuitarTown piece would be placed outside Ranch 616 cafe, whose building bears a large slithering snake sculpture, everything fell into place. 'I went and bought a huge rattlesnake skin and had it scanned ... and then printed onto a vinyl material that has adhesive on back of it,' Wade says. After the fact, he noticed an unintended design element. 'If you look at it, really, those snake scales look just like guitar picks – unbelievably, exactly like guitar picks. It's bizarre.' He carved the guitar's headstock in the shape of a rattler's head.

'Austin City Limits'

Where: Auditorium Shores

You have to have a twisted sense of humor to celebrate Austin's peskiest bird: the grackle. Big thumbs up to David Mider, Ben Blocker and Frank Zepponi for the trio's 'Austin City Limits,' which sports a simple portrait of the cackling, crackling bird that everybody loves to hate. Mider says they call it a 'Blackle.' The ACL color, that distinctive grasshopper green, gives the bird a nice 'pop.' But it's no coincidence the artists chose this particular subject matter. Mider, a graphic designer and drummer, is also creative director of C3 Presents, which produces the ACL Music Festival. As for the team's 'Blackle,' Mider says the existing 'look, feel, brand was established prior to the guitar art. It was a collaborative effort. ... The grackle is a ubiquitous representative of Austin and Zilker Park that we have embraced as a de facto mascot. Despite all of his off-putting traits, he is a neighbor, and we have to accept him.'

'Musician'

Where: Outside Royal Blue Grocery, 267 W. Third St.

Howard Weliver's Picassoesque 'Musician' is a sort of chimera Les Paul, a composite design incorporating different instruments – drum, guitar, keyboard and a behatted musician. The bright colors and Cubist sensibility may be a little derivative, but then what artwork isn't derivative in some way? There is something pure and almost meditative about Weliver's piece. The lines are simple, the palette primary. Nice concept.

'Gibson Tree'

Where: Auditorium Shores

A big crowd-pleaser, the 'Gibson Tree.' Also, sneaky. At first glance, it's just a really slick sculptural piece with three-dimensional flames and a neck that sprouts into a tree. And wedged under the faux strings is a large faux guitar pick. But Johnny Edwards, a North Texas artist whose design outfit, Epicenter, does sculptural installations for museums and rock gyms, has added some hidden layers. 'When you peek inside the knothole, you see a three-dimensional sculpture of the Earth, and the only thing on it is Texas. It's about how Texas is so independent,' Edwards says. 'We're the only people that have hot tubs in the shape of our state.' (Is that a good thing?)

'Amor, Ven a Mi (Love, Come to Me)'

Where: Outside El Sol y La Luna, 1224 S. Congress Ave.

There's something cool and kooky about those Mexican sirenas, no matter where they turn up. Federico Archuleta's sweetness-and-light 'Amor, Ven a Mi (Love, Come to Me)' is no exception. Here, it appears the come-hither creatures — half-fish, half-woman — have mastered the seductive arts of underwater trumpet playing and guitar picking. Note the little blue air bubbles that float around the aquatic ladies. It's refreshing, too, that these mermaids are realistic (OK, sort of ... ). They're full-figured like real women, not tall and skinny like Daryl Hannah.