A statue near Penticton Regional hospital has been vandalized for the second time in recent months.
Local art enthusiast Anne Ramey was disheartened when she spotted the defaced sun goddess statue on her way to work. The statue sits near the corner of Government Street and Industrial Avenue.
“I walk by there every day and she’s one of my favourite statues so it was pretty hard to see,” Ramey said.
After trying to clean the paint off the statue herself, Ramey took to Facebook to see if anyone else would be willing to help out.
“Someone dumped what I can only guess is paint on the sun goddess statue by the hospital. It chips off pretty easily, I got what I could off her face at least, but would someone maybe go give her a scrub?” she wrote.
Eventually, Ramey got in touch with Bobbi Capnerhurst of the Penticton Regional Hospital Art Committee Sculpture Walk. Capnerhurst is now arranging for the statue to be cleaned.
“It saddened me to see something beautiful trashed just for the fun of it. It’s pointless mischief,” Ramey said. “I was relieved though to see it was just paint, something fixable.”
This is the second time the “Dawn” statue has been vandalized. The statue used to hoist a quartz sun above her head, but that was smashed by vandals in April, 2020.
Since then, locals have taken the opportunity to have a bit of fun and make sure Dawn’s empty hands are put to good use by placing items like fruit and vegetables in her hands.
| Locals made the best of a bad situation after the sun goddess statue was originally vandalized. (Monique Tamminga – Western News) |
The sun goddess statue has been in Penticton for over two years now. It was created by Nelson sculptor Denis Kleine as part of the hospital’s sculpture walk series and is set to be replaced by a new installment this summer.
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