Sailboat/Trees Refresh

The ACWL-Nuveen is very grateful to the Whitehall City Council members who voted to approve a $7,500 donation at their February 24th meeting to help fund the complete restoration of White Lake’s iconic sculpture – Sailboat/Trees. These monies combined with $6,500 awarded by the White Lake Community Fund of the Community Foundation for Muskegon County will go toward resurfacing the 22’ tall metal sculpture. After sixteen years of full exposure to the extremes of Michigan’s seasonal weather, the powder coated surface of Sailboat/Trees is showing obvious signs of wear with its faded color and cracked and flaking paint exposing bare metal.

George Ramsay at the 2010 dedication

The origin story for Sailboat/Trees starts in 2008 with artist George Ramsay when he proposed his sculpture idea to the ACWL-Nuveen’s Art Walk Committee. After a full-scale fundraising effort by the ACWL-Nuveen, the sculpture was engineered, fabricated and finally installed in 2010. Mr. Ramsay and the Art Walk Committee chose the prominent site in Covell Park because of its highly visible location at the intersection of White River and White Lake, the causeway, and the Hart-Montague Bicycle Trail. In his artist statement from 2009 Mr. Ramsay noted, “The artwork was created from two of the White Lake areas’ main visual elements. Sailboats, with their tall masts, languish in marinas all around White Lake. Trees, with their tall trunks, also surround White Lake”, He continues, “Sailboats and trees also share a common overall silhouette. Viewed from the Whitehall side the primary colors and stripes of sailboats is evident, from the Montague side, stems and leaf forms invoke trees.”

Over the course of 16 years Sailboat/Trees has become a symbol for White Lake and the twin cities of Whitehall and Montague. The current ACWL-Nuveen Art Walk Committee, who is tasked with maintaining all 19 of the sculptures on the Art Walk trail, understood the importance of restoring the sculpture. They spent several years researching and consulting with various professionals on the best approach to restoring the sculpture's surface. The committee fortunately located Greg Tuttle owner of Painting Services of West Michigan, an industrial paint shop in Grand Haven.  Mr. Tuttle conveyed a very solid plan for the artwork which involves removing the sculpture from the site, disassembling the parts, sandblasting, treating with multiple coats of 2-part catalyzed epoxy primer, then final coats of 2-part catalyzed polyurethane to match the sculpture’s original colors.  Mr. Tuttle has guaranteed that this new epoxy surface will last for 25-30 years.

So, keep an eye on Covell Park because within the next few months Mr. Tuttle plans to coordinate with Jon Thompson from Shoreline Metal Fabricators to remove the sculpture from the park and transport it to the industrial warehouse of Painting Services in Grand Haven. There Sailboat/Trees will undergo a complete restoration transformation. Once completed the sculpture will be reinstalled in Covell Park to stand vibrant and tall along the causeway. A new bronze plaque will accompany the refreshed Sailboat/Trees – replacing the deteriorating original one – it will recognize the artist, all of the original and current donor’s and the artwork’s unique history. The ACWL-Nuveen would like to thank everyone involved for their support of this significant public art project - Sailboat/Trees is a fine example of how the White Lake community values the arts!