Rubberneck worthy yard art

'Art is all in the eye of the beholder' says owner of nude female mannequins

displayed at Moses Lake home

MOSES LAKE — Mike Lee doesn't consider himself to be an artist, he just happens to be a regular guy who got a good deal on 10 mannequins and now he's going to have a little fun with them.

"They were free, that's the best part," Lee said. "The art is all in the eye of the beholder."

The 53-year-old Lee rescued the mannequins from a lady who was going to throw them out, he said, before the old building they were kept in was to be destroyed. Now he displays most of them in his front yard on the corner of Frontage Road and E.7 Northeast in various poses, nude.

"I like looking at them," he said, adding that he doesn't plan on clothing them any time soon. "I might put a hat on them in the winter."

Some of the mannequins are in poor condition. Some are missing limbs, have chipped paint and others are only legs or a torso. Lee found a new home for all of the lifeless refugees, however, including the one without her head, arms and torso, which he planted upside down leaving only a pair of legs sticking up in the air.

"I had to show off those shoes, those are nice pumps," Lee said.

Currently there are about seven mannequins displayed outside Lee's home. He doesn't plan on adding to his collection.

Lee said the mannequins are not anatomically correct and that he had not planned on being offensive to anyone. But, he admits, "I thought it might raise a few eyebrows."

He said that he hoped it would give people something to talk about and maybe they could have fun with it too. So far, the mannequins have been out in the yard for three weeks and no one has complained, he said.

There haven't been any compliments either.

Most who live or work in the area and have seen the figures were under the impression that he was into art and his medium just happened to be landscape mannequins.

"I'm not really an art buff though," he said one moment, then mentioning Salvador Dali in the next. "But I can see art everywhere, because I think that's what life is all about."

So far, reactions have been somewhat mixed for people who have seen the mannequins in Lee's yard. Those who live in the area and haven't seen them, have heard about them, and they have their opinions too.

Not surprisingly, no one was at a loss for words when asked about the man down the street with mannequins sans clothes in his yard.

One neighbor, who lives close by and chose to remain anonymous, said, "My father, who's a little bit older now, says they're 'sexual degenerates.'"

He added that he had to lecture his son, who just received his driver's license, to be careful driving by. "I tell my son not to look too long and hard when he's supposed to be driving," he said.

Neighbor Wayne Vadnais said Lee was a real gentleman and admitted that he sees some genuine creativity in what appears to be art.

"The way I see this, it don't bother me a bit," said Vadnais. "I think Mike is a good fellow and he is not out to offend anyone."

Bert Carmichael, a neighbor who admittedly has not seen the mannequins, said, "It's ludicrous."

Then added, "There are certain things that are just extremely tacky."

Neighbor Bryan Johnson said that there is nothing wrong with Lee's mannequins.

"It's just something else for people to complain about," Johnson said. "People need to be worried about something more important than some guy putting some mannequins in his garden."

Johnson said that he strongly believes in the freedom of speech and that he sees Lee's work as abstract art. Or, he said, it could become a human-anatomy learning tool, for an opportunistic parent.

"I'll go buy the guy some more if he needs them," he said.

Travel a little farther west on Frontage Road, to Whitby Ag Enterprises LLC, where some employees receive daily glimpses, and a few seemed less impressed.

Aaron Hull, who works out in the yard at Whitby Ag, believes the mannequins are unnecessary. He said that students are subjected to the figures twice a day while riding the school bus along that particular stretch of Frontage Road.

"We get so busy with our jobs and families that we Americans tend not to step back and think about the ramifications of these things," Hull said. "I realize kids can see it on MTV, but we're trying to raise a generation of kids with strong values and morals."

Hull believes the public image should be considered further. What he sees being portrayed currently is ungainly.

Julie Larsen, who works in the office at Whitby Ag said, "When I first went by there, my 9-year-old was like, 'Oh, sick.'"

Larsen said she thought it would be nice if Lee started putting costumes on the plastic bodies. Right now, she said, it is just weird and bizarre.

"They're my scarecrows," Lee insists, adding that they keep the birds away. Lee does have a garden, but some of the mannequins are not in it.

Lee has also named one of the former clothing models.

"Gizzelle," he says, pointing to one mannequin posing in the yard with freshly painted black hair.

"Keep your eye on them because they might move around a bit," Lee predicted.