Around 80 community members helped artist Paige Dirksen paint the “All Bike(r)s Welcome” mural, located in a tunnel on NW 3rd Street near Coler Mountain Bike Preserve.

Roughly the same number of people showed up at the City Council meeting on Tuesday, May 27, to support the artist in a dispute with the city.

At issue are slight color variations between the city-approved mockups and the finished mural — in four spots, different colors were used.

The mural was completed in October. Since then, complaints about the artwork were made to a City Council member, according to Mayor Stephanie Orman. That’s when city staff noticed discrepancies between the approved mockups and the final mural and began requesting changes. The people who made the complaints have not been named.

Supporters of the mural object to the level of scrutiny being applied to the mural, which was designed around themes of inclusivity. They also allege that the city has communicated poorly about the issue and say any future alteration of the artwork would erase the contributions of dozens of community members.

“This mural was fully approved, celebrated and installed with the goal of fostering belonging. It wasn’t just about the final image, it was about the process of creating something together,” Dirksen said. “As the convener of that group, I don’t take lightly the impact it had on them. To alter the piece now would completely undermine their work and what it meant.”  

Dirksen also explained the reasons for the discrepancies between the mockup and the final artwork.

“The adjustments in color and shape were minor. These were practical as well as unintentional decisions that were made on-site to accommodate the wall’s condition and the realities of community mural work,” Dirksen said.

Elysia Contreras Springer is the board chair of All Bikes Welcome, a group that collaborated with Dirksen on the mural.

“I’m here today because I’m deeply concerned about the inconsistent and unclear communication from the city regarding this mural,” Contreras Springer said. “We were not opposed to making changes in principle, but the way this process unfolded wasn’t respectful, transparent or fair and it can’t just be brushed under the rug.”

In all, ten people were permitted to speak on the issue, consistent with the city’s process of limiting public comment to 30 minutes on topics that are not listed on the official City Council agenda. 

The City Council wasn’t scheduled to vote on anything related to the mural, and several members seemed confused about why anyone would be concerned about the color variations.

“I just heard about it today, and I’m like what the heck is going on?” council member Bill Burckart said.

“I would like to know how it started,” council member Chris Sooter said. “Because if it’s blue versus red versus yellow, what difference does it make?”

To help explain the situation, council member Aubrey Patterson shared what she had heard from some community members.

Some people feel that “the upper left-hand corner looks like the trans flag now,” Patterson said. “So the assertion is they snuck in a trans flag.”

The city says the complaints — regardless of content — simply prompted staff to take another look at the mural, at which point they noticed several spots where the colors were different than expected and followed up about it.

The city doesn’t have staff dedicated full-time to overseeing the increasing amount of public art on city-owned property, such as trails and parks.

Much of the work of coordinating new artwork falls to the Public Art Advisory Committee, a volunteer board of community members. The approval process is thorough: proposed artwork is often discussed at multiple meetings, sometimes revised, and ultimately sent to City Council for final approval.

However, there’s currently no formal process to review public art installations after completion.

City Council members discussed how much artistic license should be expected in producing a piece of art. Within the city’s existing policies, according to Bonnie Bridges, staff attorney at the city, the issue is a matter of simple contract law.

“We, legal, approach contracts how we approach all contracts. The plain language is what it is, that’s what we’re going to enforce when we’re asked about it,” Bridges said.

Mayor Stephanie Orman said the City Council will ultimately need to decide whether to amend the contract to allow the artwork to exist as-is or to enforce the contract’s technicalities.

She also apologized for how the situation transpired. 

“I apologize to everybody in this process. It’s a challenging process, it’s been very challenging for us,” she said. “We are learning some things through this. We will go back to public art and try to clearly define how we do not get back to this again.” 

The City Council is expected to discuss the mural, along with public art policies, at an upcoming meeting.

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