Artist is fine with reactions to mural

"Debate is good," says the man who painted the Seminole water tower. He has another idea for people to chew on.

By ANNE LINDBERG
Published January 9, 2006

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Tom Stovall, who painted the Seminole water tower, said he was not surprised to hear from a reporter last week because friends had already called to tell him about the debate.

"I've heard the buzz for a couple of weeks now, I guess," said Stovall, who lives in St. Petersburg. "I think it's all healthy (that) everybody's out there yapping it up. ... It's public art. Debate is good."

The fact that some would prefer another design neither surprised nor dismayed Stovall. The paint, he said, has a "shelf life" of only seven to 10 years, so he expected that something would happen at the end of that time, whether it was a new design or simply refreshing the color. Once it fades, Stovall said, he would prefer that it be painted over rather than left looking bad.

"That design could be easily preserved - and painted exactly the same," he said. But if that proved unpopular, "there's a wide range of possibilities."

The cost would depend, of course, on what work is done, he said.

If asked to redo the work, Stovall said he'd ideally like to try the design he originally wanted on the tower: a gumball machine.

He dropped that concept when even his friends "starting tilting their heads."

The gumball machine would be striking, he says.

"They're beautiful colors. They're just bright and vivacious." But "when you do something as wild as a gumball machine, you're inviting all of that disapproval. It's too public. So (the design) should be attentive to the whole."