TULSA, Okla. — The City of Tulsa released proposals from other artists who submitted ideas for the Crybaby Hill statue.
Community members started asking to see the other submissions after displeasure at the selected statue design.
Take a look at the renderings here—> Gallery of submissions
WATCH: 2 News talked to community leaders and artists about the design proposal:
2 News took the submissions into the community to get reaction.
"That’s the history of Tulsa in a statue versus the one they originally proposed," said Lucas Daffern.
We showed him this rendering as he walked in the area where the statue is planned.
The hill is prominent, especially being so visible from Highway 75. Daffern said he wanted something that represented Tulsa and Route 66, as well as Crybaby Hill.
"It definitely will create some confusion for people driving through. Obviously, residents of the area will know but somebody who is driving from Dallas to Kansas City or whatever, they’ll drive by and just think it’s a statue of a kid crying," said Daffern.
2 News first covered this story after artist Ken Kelleher's statue was selected. In that story, Tulsa artist Chris Wollard talked about the money for the art not staying local.
2 News met back up with Wollard with the new renderings.
"I don’t think there’s ever been this much interest in a piece of public art before. I’m all for it. I’m all for, I guess, the transparency," said Wollard.
Wollard said he never wants to judge other artists' work, but he’s happy his work and the other proposals are getting recognized.
"These proposals take a long time. You know you’ve gotta come up with a concept. Gotta come up with a rendering and kind of figure out logistics, timeline, budget, all kind of stuff," said Wollard.
While the city shared these, it doesn’t mean they’re swaying from artist Ken Kelleher’s selected design. The city holds strong they are going to move forward with the artist they’ve selected.
2 News talked to the selected artist about the drama surrounding his submission.
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