Library Board - Regular Meeting

We can start whenever you're ready. Are we ready? Okay. It is 5.02. I'd like to call the meeting to order. Can we have a roll call? Beth Moulton. Roseline. Wenda Helgert. It does not appear as though we have anyone here for public comments today. Do I have a motion for approval of the minutes from our December meeting? So moved. Second? I'll second it. All in favor? Aye. And we'll move on to new business because I think we have a bit to cover today.

Okay. Sure. We're tag teaming this evening. So I just wanted to start out with this. I'm sure you've all seen it already. It's gotten some really good Good press, good reviews, I think has been a great addition to the alley. And we're working with the second artist. He's starting his panels to do the window that will be on the side of this building. The window is being fixed. We have been talking with the owner, and they were having some insurance issues back and forth. So that is in process. But after this was approved, the artist had the idea of doing some footsteps coming up from the river. So those were added as well. So kind of a fun, whimsical addition there. We don't know what his or her name is.

That's all that it does. She was her.

Yeah.

The name of the fox? She's on one of the other proposals. She was. I don't know.

Yeah, can I see it? Sure.

She is... Oh, it's Hannah Tooves is the artist. But I mean the name of the box. She or he has a name yet. I don't think so. So Jennifer took all your scoring and we ranked them and we have the top six and then I have seven, eight, nine in here also to talk about just in case we want to to go that far. One thing before we start, just understanding that although the Thomas Press owner did say he's willing to do more than just those small, two small panels, I think he does want to be involved and sort of see the design. I don't know if he'd be open to the entire building being painted, but he may. So for the right... design and so forth. So just keep that in mind as we look through to like how things might be scalable. Yeah, it might ultimately have to get adjusted a little bit working with him.

And also I just would mention that Amy's top three are in this list of six. So she would show that all of her Favorite ones are in here as well. So if you want me to read comments of hers when we get to them, that's fine too. But this is the one that came out on top. It is, it was... It ranked definitely the highest and there was about an eight point spread between this one and the next one. So one of the reasons we have six, we did the top six is because two tied for third place in the ranking. So we just thought, well, we'll show you all of them and you can have some discussion. So I don't know how you want me to do it. Do you want me to just show you the top six and then discuss? Or did you want to discuss them as we go? Or what's your pleasure?

Let's say we see the top six first and then...

Okay. So this one has kind of the historic figures, the whole building. One thing to note on here, I think that's Les Paul in the middle, so we'd have to get permission to use his image, obviously, and such. And then you have the immigrant children on the other end, which is kind of the lower picture showing that. This was the second place winner? No, this was just a series. Oh, that's his other work. Okay. I was like, whoa, I don't remember seeing that.

Give control back to Maria.

So if you wanted to do something, I mean, it looks like he has a lot of depth, right? He can do nature, he does people. So if you like his style, but you want to, the theme to be a little different, I think. It seems like you could accommodate that.

There's a few. For each of them, there's a few signs up there, examples.

All right, this is number two. Yeah. So this one came in about nine points higher than number three, so a little more distance. So that was her perspective. It's not a complete covering of the building, but it's all nature related. Here are some of her other works that she's done already. So it does look like she does people as well. So there's a lot of examples there. All right, this is one of the ones that came in number three. So she's proposing more of a sculptural addition to the building, so a 3D kind of thing. And she had a couple different proposals. So that's the first one. This is the second one. And the third one. She also does painting, so I feel like if you wanted her instead of do sculpture or incorporate the sculpture with the painting, maybe she could do that, do both. The only thing that we kind of triggered on this is maybe not going all the way to the ground for snow clearance and things like that. Like, I feel like we'd have to be mindful about, oops, about how these are applied to the building or maybe the locations of them, but we could work through that. And this is the other number three. And this is some of her other work, which is a kind of a very unique style. So she's done a lot of really lovely things. And let's see. That's number three. And then one point below those two is tilt vision. Kind of like this historic postcard look. So we have to work through some of the details of that. And then here's some of this other work.

part of what he's going to do.

It's not on the building now. He's proposing.

He is proposing.

But he didn't say that in his proposal.

I didn't notice it when I was looking at it, and I think it's a really nice add if he's going to do it.

But isn't the fox, there was one with the fox that played off of the lamp that came down. There was a side view of the fox, and then there was a front view of the fox in the light

That one didn't rank in the top. That's okay. That's why I'm wondering whether that is a light that's there or not there. The gooseneck light is not there right now. It's not there. That's over Thomas Press.

Okay.

I think there is maybe another light fixture that's affixed to the building. Okay.

But that must be what I was... Because I just remembered that the awkward light thing made the view of the Fox look like it's running. It's going to be.

And then this is, so number six, which really he ranked number five.

Let's wait for her to come back.

Yeah.

Okay, it's official. The artists do not agree with the alderman.

It was interesting entering all your scores because I'm like, you guys all looked at it totally differently. It's so interesting.

And I imagine the comments would give you that too.

Yeah.

It's like, okay, are we looking at purely artistic? Or as you said, are we looking at a functional, can we do snow removal? Is it going to be vandalized? Are we going to be able to get the rights to these people's face and rights? I know. There's a big variety of that.

So this is number, in the rankings, number five because of that tie. Number six in our list here. So that would be the end of the building, that little piece, yeah. And then here's some of her other work. And then there's more if you want, but we have to start with those. back to the, or if you guys want to start anywhere. Can we start with the crab stov? Which one?

That's number three, crab stov.

Oh, crab stov, okay. That was the alternate, oh, this one. Oh, never mind.

So they had kind of two options. They don't show the openings in the buildings. And these were also willing to, modify their design.

What I wrote down about this one was initially it was a bug followed by a fish followed by a crane when the variant was the cardinal and to me it looked like the bug was about to be eaten by the fish and the crane was about to eat the fish and then it said and the thing that how harmonious these animals are and I was like I think they are interdependent. I missed the point of the harmony there so I didn't know if everyone would miss that point or that was just me.

You do make a good point, though, unless they're going to do like the panels over the windows. And I don't know that Thomas Press is interested in having that done. Because a lot of these kind of are dependent on where the windows and doors are in terms of the design.

I wonder if the designers took that into consideration. Like if you look at the cardinal where that kind of square area is. Like I wonder if... part of the design is kind of figuring like that might not be there.

Maybe it's like right before the face would be one or something. Yeah, I don't know.

Or, you know, even if they wanted to do like long linear panels, multiple of them or some, you know, I mean, I think more of it's the style.

Yeah. Especially looking at the cardinal one, if that is the one that is chosen, it does look like there, if it were broken into panels or segments that could be moved about a little bit with some of the, like, lineage or something connecting them somehow. I don't know if that's... Of the two, is there a preference for people? Or do we even want to get into that if we haven't decided about ones, one and two? Or other things? Do we want to pick apart which of these two designs, for example, would be a favorite if we're going to be going with the other artists? Yeah. I think we picked the artists first. I think that that's probably what. So should we start with number one?

That's this one. So Amy's, she didn't give her points, so her points didn't show up in the actual ranking, but this was also her number one.

So this one, this Thomas Press' business gets kind of swallowed by the picture. So I don't know if he's going to want his business not to be kind of visible?

Although I can't read the big sign to the left of the white up there. Is that the Thomas Press sign up there?

Yeah, that's the Thomas Press sign. If you walk by that sign, you'd hardly even know where to go in. Well, that's kind of the way that it is right now, though, isn't it?

kind of lens in the background? Because there's no real color on that building. It is kind of a nondescript sign.

It's more of a destination than it is a walk-in business. Right.

You know where you're going if you're going there. It's not kind of a point of sale.

You wouldn't just pop in there to say what's new or whatever. I wonder if Thomas Press sign is able to be moved. You know, like if that is just a panel. It seems like there's a panel on the other side too. Right. I think that's the same sort of sign. Why do you want all the signs?

Well, because... Just in terms of location where the mural is.

Yeah, just because it kind of messes with the mural. Not that Thomas Press would... like that, but, you know.

If Thomas Press does not want that much of the building taken up, because you said that might be a concern, correct, I would say to maybe eliminate some of the left-hand side of the immigrant children and focus more on the, I mean, there's a lot of kids there. So maybe one or two of the immigrant, maybe one or two of the regular kids that follow as opposed to a classroom full. Because we're already kind of condensing the history leading up to the end there. But again, that would not be something we need to be concerned about if Thomas Press is okay with using it.

I think it's cool that James is a Waukesha resident. Just great to be able to say that this mural was created by a Waukesha resident.

It also has the Waukesha name on it. It would be one of those good selfie places as a destination kind of thing for people to go to get their picture taken. In which case they'd get more publicity because their sign is probably going to also be in that.

It's really busy and it's not fun.

Well, remember, we've got very whimsical at the very beginning. We've got also whimsical across the way with the window with the squishy things coming out of it. Okay. So in terms of mixing things up. It's okay with me if we don't agree.

Yeah. I can imagine people, like, enjoying it just to kind of, like, stroll by because there's so much to look at.

Mm-hmm.

Like just kind of stopping and enjoying the faces.

That's right. Yeah, move to the next one. Oops. So it's this one.

Oh, that's .

She does have examples, too, of adding things in.

The comment that I made of this is, I think it's bright. I think it's colorful. It kind of does visually lead you along. But I'm concerned about the amount of empty space behind it.

I think it's pretty. But I go with you with the space behind it. I think there was another one that had a bunch of flowers that filled everything. I liked this one until I saw that one. Maybe I liked that one better. This is really pretty. And it's safe. It's basic Wisconsin. It is. There's no people in it. Right.

But is it very Waukesha specific? Is that what we're looking for? I don't know. Oh, do we have bathrooms down here? I hope not.

Hopefully not in my backyard. Maybe we switched it off for a box. Right, there you go.

Okay, any other comments on this one?

It kind of seems to me that it would be more like mainstream. Enjoyed more by the mainstream, which isn't bad for what we're trying to do, you know, whatever. But I think it's, I think you said it was safe. Safe.

I'm also, with the graphic computer background, I look at her layout, and obviously she did her things, and I just kind of place them, and I'm thinking, why did you cut off or why did you, you know, there's, flowers are flexible. You could really work those things in without cutting out the main part of that. And she did that, I think, mostly with the butterflies, but flowers, or the frog, or the banter.

And that's something we could ask of her, too.

any other discussion this is the sculpture she had a couple of proposals I think it's really cool it's fun I wish

that it was actually kinetic sculpture. What is a kinetic sculpture? That it would move, that they would actually move. They look like there's movement already, but I wish that they would be movable, but that has.

I did like this one, but how are we going to keep out all the bird's nests?

And kids from hanging on them. I'm concerned about damage with this one. And as you had said about snow removal and things get piled up here and there.

There's a big garbage truck that comes down this parking lot every day. We found out from our public works that light poles get hit all the time.

Perhaps this artist might be a thought for a different location that is higher up on a building, which would be out of reach of people, because I do think that it's kind of cool. I think the other one is a little more amorphous and kind of uses the space a little bit better. That one is kind of... That one's really nice. Yeah. But there again, here we have snow removal and end trucks. But I think that that might be a possible suggestion for one of the higher locations out of harm's way in which way.

I've never thought of birds. Birds would definitely be... Birds would be behind there, yes.

That is a good thought. we know what happens to clean up an alley. Well, they get kind of aggressive. Oh, they do.

Especially during nesting season. Robins especially. Did you want to talk more about this one or just move on to the next one?

I remember liking this one. But to see it laid out with the windows and doors, it might change it.

Okay, why don't we move on to the next one?

The one thing, we've seen this style of mirror like a million times.

True. As we have the flowers, as we have the history ones. The one thing I really like about this one is the flow behind it. that takes up the river and kind of combines things. And that it is, I don't know that you can get a whole lot more Waukesha-specific from this one.

These are panels that kind of stick off the wall a little bit, is that right? That's what it appears to be.

That's my understanding. Description below.

To your point, this has been done. When I see it, it looks familiar. Yes.

So is that good? Or do we want something, like, different? Different?

And we're wondering where that bridge is.

Well, yeah. That one in particular. That one in particular. If you choose this, we've got to find, like, specific.

Are there mountains that high in Washington?

Is that going? Okay. The last one was this one.

Now, when I see this one, I think this one has been done before all over the place in Waukesha. We have several murals that are extremely stylistically the same. I'm not saying that the layout and everything is the same, but it is a variant, right? Yeah. Again, I like the flow of it. I'm not sure where the hand on that side was coming from. Did you want to look at the next three or do you feel like you have a winner in one of these? Here's another one that's like, where's that bridge? Yes, I don't remember that climb tower.

I'll take a peek. I don't care. It's up to you guys. I'll take a peek at the other three.

Yeah, let's look at the other three. Well, because so far we've kind of said, like, we don't want something that we've seen a lot of already. And some of these are like that. So maybe the 7th to 7, 8, and 9 will be something a little more unusual and interesting. So, yeah.

So this is the first one. Okay.

They chopped off their heads.

And again, we don't know where the windows are. I'm not sure what the person in the middle is carrying. Lunchbox. I must be too literal. I don't know what the basketball and canary necessarily have to do. And are we that rural that we want to do the whole...

I think one of them could be a farmer's market visitor. And one of them could be like a day laborer, but like there should be, I think it would be cool to have an artist in there because we're trying to be more art forward or like Les Paul with a guitar, you know, something like that.

So I'm guessing that this one is probably not one of our choices. So then there's this one.

I love this guy's style and I love his, the meaning behind it and everything, but I just don't think we have enough of that immigrant population to celebrate it. And I don't know if you guys hate me now.

No.

But I'm not saying it so that you will. I totally agree with that point. I think it's beautiful.

I do think it's beautiful, and I like the prints, but I don't think it reflects what the public's going to expect there.

I feel like we have so many Hispanic people in Waukesha that if there was something, some way to... If he were open to doing something that was... you know, of another culture, that would be cool. But I am feeling kind of like he's got a... It's a niche kind of thing. Yeah. And it's obviously very personal to him. Yes.

So I don't want to... And if you did change the focus to Hispanic, then the whole imagery thing would have to be changed. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay.

And the last one is...

Yeah.

So a series of these four panels.

Yeah, so like the deer and the fish.

Discussion? I'm concerned about, and I don't know how I'm going to phrase this, the... realistic representation of the creatures and the detail that's involved i don't like seven eight nine and any of them better than the first six no no

And I was saying before we started the meeting, if this is something you want to think more about, we can just schedule a second meeting, too, if you just want to sit with these for a while. Or if you think you're ready to make a decision tonight, that's fine, too.

The other thing, if you can potentially narrow it down to a couple artists or a couple styles, we could also talk a little bit with Thomas Press, maybe, and see if this would... how that would fly with Thomas. That's not a bad thought.

Yeah, that's a good idea. Or some of the other ones, too. So we can narrow the six to three? Okay.

Well, I think that, in my opinion, this should definitely be one of the finals. Again, I think, as you said, we need to check with Thomas for us to see what their feelings are with their building. and size, and then depending on what they get back to us with to ask for artist revisions if necessary. Does that make sense? Mm-hmm.

Let me see how I'm making this smaller.

different, especially in terms of the realism and execution of things and inclusion of… That's a big one, the representation of it.

Yes, very much of it. Just so everybody's out there.

Yep, I agree. And I kind of like that it kind of ends where we're starting to do the commercial farmer's market kind of thing.

Okay. Oops. This is the flowered one.

Oops.

Oops. Oops. Oops. Can we sub the badger for a five? Sub the badger. Sub the badger for a five. All right. Sub the badger. And maybe do some arranging so that more of the imagery is complete. I don't know if that makes any more sense. Rearrange it so that you're trying to avoid the... Large chunks being cut off and fill in the background more.

I feel like I remember one of the ones.

Yes, she did submit one the first time around.

Okay, but her background was black.

I believe that is correct.

So what if she would just change the background to be black?

I think Thomas Press Building, like if there's not an actual painting on it, they had expressed that they wanted to keep that.

So fill in the background. Okay. Okay. but it can't be black.

No, they want to keep the brown background. They want to keep the brown background.

So fill in with more stuff in the background. How are they connected to each other?

So this is just one line. So that's the strip up there. So that's just the close-up of each section.

There again, this uses the entire wall. So we would also have to ask about that.

Yeah. I like seeing it in that lower picture. better than the upper one. Like just having that more real perspective and to see the windows that are actually there and they're not just black squares and rectangles. What are those things, yeah.

Again, I guess my thought would be to keep similar imagery And maybe do more winding around the windows instead of being interrupted by the windows.

Like maybe using those as a part of the decoration. Like scale down the robin a little bit and just make it look like it's standing on the... Yeah.

Although if you look at the top one, it does look more like he's sitting on top of it. You see more of his white feathers. Yeah.

And like a butterfly could be attached to the side of one of the windows. Right. I mean, and I don't know if I were a mural artist, if somebody came and said, I want you to do this and this and this and this. It depends.

Are they making their living doing that? I've been paid as an artist that you do what the client wants you to do. Right.

You're just asking that spirit. Right.

What can you give us that might include this?

Use the design elements of the building to.

Right. Do you feel like this isn't top three? Right, exactly. We love it. It's beautiful, and we'd like to see. And if you're thinking, like, this is in a meadow, well, meadows are considerably more full of things than this would.

Yeah, let's get some more little, some grasses. Right. Maybe a little water over there. Dragonfly, maybe. And a frog, and yeah, yeah. And a pond or whatever, yes. Yeah.

Agreed. Something besides badger. Do you think this is in the top three? I like the meadow concept.

It is more of a meadow. And all of the flowers would be found in a meadow. So...

Are we going to, like, pick the top three and then just pick the top one from there? Is that what we're going to do?

We're going to pick the top three we want to get something put from Thomas Price. And then get back to the artist. And then get back to you guys.

I think that sounds like a wonderful way to do it. You don't want to contact all 18 of them?

No. So, yeah. I would like to see Jenna. Which one is that? That's Jenna Brownlee. I think this is Jenna Brownlee. I would like to see her fill in more, give us more of a meadow kind of a feel, exchange the badger for a fox.

Does it have to have a fox, or can it just be a meadow?

Or a woodchuck or something that we have plenty of here. Woodchuck, a raccoon.

Sparrow and chipmunks, not a raccoon. Bunny, rabbits. I already have a raccoon.

Well, downtown, if you're going for things that live downtown, you certainly have a lot of raccoons. But the raccoons all live in the sewers. And this one, did we say no to this because of just the logistics of it? Proposal for higher up would be great. Anything with her paintings? Well, yeah.

Is this the start of her paintings?

Yes. That's the start.

Speaking of more of a meadow feel on the bottom.

Yeah. I think she's got a cool style that we haven't really seen before.

True. And the meadow and the river is a nice combination. Yeah, that's true too. but because of the Wisconsin winters and protests. But maybe she would be willing to do a proposal of painting more of the river meadow. Because that's kind of the area that she's in.

I like that that painting has the whole day on it. It starts in the morning or something and goes on with it. Yes.

And like that area Here we are doing her work again, but the area on the right where she's got all the buildings, those could be more like downtown Waukesha-looking buildings.

So could we contact her and ask her for something more in the line of the Savage Pool? I mean, you could even have her have the words Waukesha on there.

All right. The one on the bottom here? Yes, that's the one. I think both.

Just give her those two examples to give her enough wiggle room.

We shouldn't have the little alien parking up there.

No, we're talking about the one on the bottom, not the one on the top.

I like those rocks that she's got there. I like that style.

That's kind of how she did the water on the other one. movement patterns.

Yeah, I like that. And again, it's very different from the other things, the other ones that we're looking at that we've seen.

So do you need anything from us? Do you need motions?

Do you think these are your top three, the three we just went through? Should we vote on them? You don't have to vote if you guys are generally in agreement that those are the top three. All right. Do you want to look at the other ones real quick? Then we had this one, and then we had, oh, the postcard thing, yeah, and then, and the river, yeah, okay. So if you think that those artists just generally are your top three, there we go, and then the original.

AGAIN, WITH THE CLEARANCE FROM THE BUILDING OWNER.

YEAH.

AND THE ADAPTATIONS THAT MIGHT BE NECESSARY FROM THE ARTISTS. THAT WOULD BE AN OKAY THING. I FEEL GOOD ABOUT THOSE TOP THREE. OKAY. ARE YOU OKAY WITH THEM?

I'm okay. I don't mind having the artist lead the art.

Okay. So we'll have a conversation with Thomas Press and then we'll send out a poll to schedule another meeting. Maybe in like two weeks. But before the next council. Sure. And we'll send out a poll and see when you guys are available.

And may I say thank you for also sending them to our regular emails in addition to the government ones because Outlook is not very good at showing me that there's something there.

I know. It's hard for all our boards and commissions. And I really wanted you guys to catch this. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. Should we do anything else with that or should we move on to the next one? Do you have any information from us? You said roughly two or three weeks.

Yeah, we're trying to get you together two or three weeks.

Okay.

And we'll set up a meeting with the property owner, and then we'll want to talk to the artist.

And will we be meeting the new person at that time?

She starts June 30th, so depending on what the next meeting is. Lisa?

I'm sorry. You'll have a message on your machine. It's like, hello. I'll try the other entrances. Anything else to have report? No. I have nothing to report. Do you have anything to report?

They did it for us, but the Fox that's leaning against the audience has gotten a lot of good feedback.

Good. I've heard that also.

Now, can you get the window fixed?

That would help a little bit.

She was also very... Very good to work with. She's good. So good. And I think that the paw prints are kind of a clever addition to kind of draw people in. I think that's wise. Aside from that, we'll set the meeting date as per when we hear from the artists. Okay. Do I have a motion to adjourn? I'll make a motion to adjourn. Do I have a second? I'm seconding. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? We are adjourned at... 544 people. Very efficient.