Artist unveils sculpture as Uptown looks to become 'outdoor art gallery'

Friday, February 10, 2006 ~ By Diana Nelson Jones, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

James Simon wasn't sure whose lipstick kiss stained his cheek yesterday. A lot of people were enamored -- his Uptown neighbors, his mother, Duquesne University officials and students, his artistic collaborators.

They turned out about 100 strong in frigid wind chill to cheer his 9-by-25-foot vertical sculpture in relief on the wall of the Forbes Avenue garage.

It joins a growing body of work in Uptown by Mr. Simon and others in an effort to change the look of the neighborhood and perceptions about what it offers.

At his studio on Gist Street, Mr. Simon created the sculpture "Uptown Rhythm" in clay, then, from plaster molds, cast it in concrete. It is a whimsical, colorful cacophony of swaying people, animals, musical instruments and animated buildings, all topped by a large parrot and Duquesne University's ornate "D."

Yesterday, he explained the parrot, saying he grew to love colorful birds when he lived in Mexico and Brazil.

One of the characters in the sculpture is a man on a bike carrying a turtle in his arms with a baby rollicking on his back.

"I like turtles," he said, smiling sheepishly.

At the podium, before the art was unveiled, Duquesne University President Charles J. Dougherty said many campus artworks "are meant to be reverential, or reminders of our associations with each other." This one "is intentionally playful" and a bridge between the university and Uptown cultures.

"It will probably slow a lot of traffic on Forbes, too," Dr. Dougherty said.

"It represents the vitality and diversity that has been and can be Uptown again," said Jeanne McNutt, an artist and a leader of the Uptown Community Action Group. She has been encouraging Mr. Simon in his effort to make Uptown known for its public art.

The "Art on Gist Street" initiative that he co-founded with his friend and neighbor John Fleenor is a response to the presence of drug dealers and prostitutes.

"It's a depressed area that we wanted to turn into an outdoor art gallery," he said.

The first attraction was his King Kong sculpture looking out from a wall outside his studio.

Mr. Simon grew up in Stanton Heights, trained in Italy and England, and continued to live and work abroad for years before returning to Pittsburgh five years ago when his father became ill.

"I liked this neighborhood just from driving around," he said. "It's like I came full circle: My dad grew up on Dinwiddie Street and went to Fifth Avenue High School."

He said he went to the Action Group to propose "a big art project in Uptown for Uptown. You have to have a community force to stop ugly things from happening, but my angle is art, art for the people, because art is not part of the lives of most poor people."