Artist Angry His Name Taken Off Four Statues

An artist whose signature was removed from four stone cougars he restored on the Main Street Viaduct plans to wage a public-opinion campaign to have his name restored.

The state Department of Transportation ruled that plaques bearing the name of artist Don J. Rodgers violated a state law prohibiting commercial billboards along highways.

On Tuesday, department employees chiseled the 6-by-4-inch plaques off the sculptures, leaving small white spaces where the plaques had been affixed.

Rodgers said he won’t sue, but plans a public-opinion campaign aimed at restoring his signature to the bridge, which was recently widened and refurbished for $7 million.

Rodgers was paid $12,500 to restore four stone cougars placed on the viaduct when it was built in 1938.

Rodgers insists his name belongs on the refurbished sculptures.

“They didn’t hire a concrete man to come up and do a patch job,” he said. “They hired an artist. If they’d told me not to (sign) this, I would have said, ‘Forget the job.”’

But Jerry Lenzi, director of the DOT’s eastern regional office in Spokane, said Rodgers was hired for restoration work, not art.

Lenzi said he is required by the state’s Scenic Vistas Act to remove advertisements along state highways.

The plaques - bearing Rodgers’ name and the location of his studio - “could be construed as advertisements,” he said.