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Some say that 'Tracing the Fore' is ugly, while its defenders say its look will improve with time.

By KELLEY BOUCHARD Staff Writer November 10, 2007

Every time Alexandra Dietrich drives past "Tracing the Fore," a relatively new public art installation in Boothby Square, she and her friends have the same reaction.

"It's so ugly," said Dietrich, 22, a voice student at the University of Southern Maine. "It looks unfinished, and what is finished looks hard and metallic and cold."

It's not exactly the reaction that Portland's Public Art Committee anticipated when it commissioned an art installation for the granite-bound grassy median that divides Fore Street, from Market Street to Pearl Street, in the heart of the Old Port.

The committee chose the Massachusetts artist Shauna Gillies- Smith in 2004 to create a landscape piece that would mimic the waves of the Fore River, which ran along Fore Street before the waterfront was filled to create Commercial Street.

After several delays and cost increases, "Tracing the Fore" was installed last December. The city wound up paying $135,000 for the resulting matted mounds of grass and nine half-inch-thick panels of serrated stainless steel.

Initially, reactions from passersby were encouraging. Reviews turned harsh after the grass grew in during the spring and summer.

"People are wondering why it's such a mess," said Alice Spencer, chairwoman of the Public Art Committee. "I say, be patient. With a landscape piece like this, it takes two or three years for (grass) to do what you want it to. It's not going to look great, probably, for another year or so."

The artist could not be reached for comment on Friday.

After the committee selected "Tracing the Fore" from a few dozen proposals, the project's cost increased from $65,000 to $135,000, largely because the price of steel increased, city officials said.

The project had to be redesigned when underground utilities were discovered during installation. The project was further delayed when a special finish had to be applied to the steel.

City Councilor David Marshall, an artist who serves on the Public Art Committee, said he believes the appearance of "Tracing the Fore" will improve as the grass becomes more established.

Marshall wasn't a member of the committee when the project was chosen, but he said the committee has learned some valuable lessons in commissioning such a complicated installation with so many variables.

As a result, Marshall said, the committee has since sought smaller, finished projects that can be installed more easily. In addition, he noted, when the committee sought proposals for Winslow Park on Baxter Boulevard earlier this year, it called for artists based in Maine, or with a significant affiliation to the state.

Still, some believe that spending $135,000 on "Tracing the Fore" was a mistake. They say it distracts from other recent improvements to the historic square, which is surrounded by architecturally significant brick and granite buildings, including the landmark U.S. Customs House, built in 1872.

The city restored the square's cobbled pavement in 2000 and 2001 at a cost of $600,000.

In 2004, the Libra Foundation gave the city $50,000 to buy and reinstall the granite horse-watering trough that once stood in the square.

"Once the trough was back in place, (the square) should have been left the way it was," said Eileen Worthley, who has a hair salon at Fore and Pearl streets. "Now, it's not pretty. It's not interesting. It's just not good."

Spencer said public art is often criticized and sometimes becomes a target for people's unhappiness.

"Public art is meant to create civic conversation," she said. "Sometimes that conversation is pleasant. Sometimes it's not."

Staff Writer Kelley Bouchard can be contacted at 791-6328 or at:

kbouchard@pressherald.com