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Desecration? Nope, just artwork

Phrases such as "Down With Homework" line a stucco wall in a couple's front yard, much to the chagrin of neighbors and business owners.

By S.I. ROSENBAUM
Published January 27, 2006

Traffic slows in front of Jayne Kirse's house. People squint at the tangle of red and green graffiti on a stucco wall.

The neighbors ask each other: What is that? And who did it?

"It's a temporary art installation," Kirse said, smiling.

The artist is Kirse's 12-year-old daughter, Libby Olson. Two weeks ago, Libby asked permission to spray paint over the old pumping station in their front yard.

Her parents said yes.

Kirse and her husband, Jeff Olson, recently bought the squat, white-walled structure from the county. They plan on knocking it down and have already applied for a demolition license.

"It's going to go down, anyway," Libby said.

Kirse and her husband bought their daughter red and green spray paint. "I made sure they understood this was only happening because the building was coming down," she said.

Then Libby and four of her friends, ages 12 and 13, spent a few days covering the blank walls with names, messages and slogans.

Logan Rocks.

I love Tommy.

Down with Homework.

Even her mother got into the act, spray painting a phrase or two.

"It's something I've always wanted to do," Kirse confided.

The Kirse-Olsons aren't exactly anarchists. Olson is a contractor; he built the family's airy, light-filled house. Libby is on her school's swim team. She wears braces and pink nail polish.

Nonetheless, their art project has horrified many - especially the business owners at the small commercial plaza across the street.

"It's degrading the whole neighborhood," said Nick Eganhos, 50, who owns Alpha Pizza House. "It makes us look like slums."

Eganhos said the Kirse-Olsons and their daughter have been customers for years.

That's why he was so surprised to hear that they let her paint the graffiti, he said.

"Exactly what is it that (they) are trying to teach her with regard to property?" Eganhos asked.

"What happens when she's 16, 17?"

Hanh Mintkenbaugh, 57, who runs a tailor shop, said she hates the graffiti.

"When people look at it, they think bad kids do that," she said. "If it was my building, I would shoot them. If it was my kid, I would break their leg!"

"It's absolutely ridiculous," said Mintkenbaugh's customer, Laura Evans, 31. "It's just disgusting.

She added, "Most of the people driving by aren't going to know the story, and they're going to think this is a bad neighborhood."

The Sheriff's Office has also been worried. Deputies have stopped by several times, Kirse said. On Wednesday, she even got a visit from a detective with the county's gang-prevention unit.

She told them all the same thing: that the graffiti was painted with her permission.

Because of that, the graffiti is not a code violation, said Dexter Barge, the county's director of housing and code enforcement.

He read the relevant county ordinance aloud: "No person shall write, paint or draw any inscription of any kind (on private property) . . . unless the permission of the owner or operator of the property has been obtained."

"That's the part I don't like," he added.

"We normally go and ask people not to do that. But if I had to really enforce it and take it to court, the way the ordinance is written, I don't think I'd have a leg to stand on."

Still, the neighborhood won't have to put up with the Kirse-Olsons' creativity for too much longer.

Within the next few weeks, Kirse said, she expects to have the final approval on the demolition license for the old pumping station.

Then, she said, their homegrown art installation will close.

S.I. Rosenbaum can be reached at 661-2442 or srosenbaum@sptimes.com

[Last modified January 26, 2006, 09:01:02]