TULSA, Okla. — The City of Tulsa released proposals from other artists who submitted for the Crybaby Hill statue.
This is the first time the community has seen designs that went up against the one selected.
This comes after weeks of Tulsans and Riverview residents wanting to see those submissions.
2 News got those submissions and took them back into the community.
"That’s the history of Tulsa in a statue versus the one they originally proposed," said Lucas Daffern who was walking near where the sculpture will be.
This is the rendering he was looking at.
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 on Sept. 26 after the renderings were released.
"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 said he’s happy his work and the other proposals are getting recognized. This allows the public to see their art, he said.
"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 has held strong that they are going to move forward with the artist they’ve selected.
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