Demand to fix the painting of the Hippo and to do right by our children.!
Back in March of this year, the City of Hutto partnered with the Hutto ISD to hold a contest in which they invited ALL of the students of Hutto to submit drawings for a contest. Two of the artwork submissions would be chosen. One artwork would be painted on the Hutto city hall hippo. The other would be painted on the business district hippo. These hippo statues would be a representation of our community.
A group of Hutto ISD teachers did an in-house preliminary vote and selected 6 submissions as finalists. The 6 submitted drawings were put on the City of Hutto Municipal Government Facebook page. They asked the community to vote for their favorite 2 drawings. Over 400 votes were received. My daughter (a first grader) and another boy (a fourth grader) were the chosen winners.
The kids were both invited to a city council meeting on April 1, 2021 where their drawings were displayed on a large screen and the kids were given recognition by the city and Dr. Estrada Thomas, the Hutto ISD superintendent, for their incredible achievements. (They had competed against much older children and won!) Trinity's drawing was chosen to be painted on the city hall hippo. The other boy's drawing would be painted on the business district hippo. We were told the hippos would be painted over the following couple of weeks and then we would be invited back for the big reveal and photo-op.
As the painting of the city hall hippo began, the first thing we noticed was they painted green grass, the sky blue, some trees, as well as some random buildings in the background. They stenciled images of real human beings. None of these details were from Trinity's drawing.
I immediately began conversations with our Mayor, Mike Snyder. I expressed my concern and my child's upset feelings. Why would they invite young children to submit drawings only to go and adult them up? Why would we ask our kids to do something if it wasn't going to be good enough and needed to be changed? I wouldn't have encouraged my first grader to participate if that were the case. That's not the child's drawing they were painting on the hippo. He was in agreement and stated, "It was my understanding that the hippos would be painted to what the winning pictures were. I think it should be as closely representative as possible of what the actual drawing was. Reminds me of the cow parade series that was done." Mike gave me the contact information for Stacy Schmitt who works for the city manager.
Stacy and I had a very nice long conversation. She empathized as she has 4 children of her own and understood how a child would feel about this. She agreed that the paintings should look just like the original artwork. She also stated that the hippo that was being painted in the business district looked terrible because they had painted the background pink and purple, which also, was not in the little boys drawing.
She explained that the Hutto high school art teacher and her students were put in charge of painting the hippos (on a voluntary basis. Zero compensation). She assured me that she would talk directly with the art teacher and clarify the directives. The hippos were to be painted exactly like the two children's drawings.
On April 26, 2021 I followed up with Stacy via text message. She stated, "The art teacher was totally open to our feedback and will make changes when they resume painting this week."
The evening of May 24, 2021 we drove by city hall to see what the progress looked like. We were shocked and saddened to see the city hall hippo was not corrected at all! In fact, it had more paint added to the adulted version of the drawing. Why???
On May 25th and 26th, I tried calling Stacy. I left two messages, and then texted her cell phone twice. She never responded. I then reached back out to Mayor Snyder who in turn gave me the contact information to Kristi Robich, the manager of community outreach and programs.
On May 27, 2021, Kristi Robich and I spoke on the phone in length and scheduled an in-person meeting to discuss and clarify what we hoped to see happen. Kristi stated that she would ask the Hutto high school art teacher to attend the in-person meeting as well.
On June 1, 2021 @ 9:00am, my daughter, myself, Jennie James (a Hutto resident/artist/professional painter who paints all the homeowners' hippo statues around Hutto), and Krist Roblich met. (The art teacher couldn't make it for some reason).
Kristi stated the art teacher told her that the difficulty with painting the hippo is in trying to take a 2D drawing and paint it on a 3D object. (My daughter's drawing is a stick figure drawing.) The professional artist that attended this meeting, Jennie, explained that this is not a true issue and gave her professional perspective. She also offered to fix the painting if the city would compensate her as she does this for a living. Kristi Robich declined the offer as the art teacher is doing it on a voluntary basis.
Kristi even took the opportunity and spoke directly with my 1st grader that day. She asked, "Trinity, what do you think needs to be changed on the hippo painting to make it look more like the picture you drew?" Trinity told her, " It needs the yellow sunshine with a happy face on the hippo's booty. There needs to be an airplane, a kid riding their bike, girls saying hi to each other, and the kids need to have different colors of skin like my picture." I interjected and asked Trinity, "Do you want to tell her why you want their skin colors different?" Trinity replied, "Because we have all kinds of different skin kids here. Nobody should be left out." As you can imagine we were all impressed!!
By the end of the meeting, we had all come to an agreement that the art teacher would, once again, be given directives to correct the paintings and make them look as close to the original artwork as possible with stick figures and al. We did agreed that the grass would be fine if left green and the sky blue, but everything else needed to be redone to match Trinity's drawing.
On June 17, 2021, we drove by to see nothing had been changed on the hippo. I sent an text to Kristi Robich asking for an update. She stated, "Hi Tamara, thanks for checking in. I'm currently in training and will be back in the office next week. The hippo painting had started back up again this week and hopefully will be complete soon." Well, we could see this wasn't true. Still, I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt since she was out of the office (possibly out of town). Maybe there was a timeline miscommunication and perhaps the painting would be completed over that upcoming weekend.
The following Monday, June 21, 2021, we drove by the hippo and to our dismay....the hippo was not corrected at all! In fact more details, color, etc. had been added to the disputed painting. My daughter cried.
Tuesday, June 22, 2021, I sent a new text message to Krist. It said, "Hello. Will you please call me? I would like to offer my time to correct the hippo once and for all if the city will provide paint and paint brushes. Clearly the task did NOT get done as you indicated it would. They just added details to what was there. I am willing to make time to take care of it the way we discussed. The current painting is not Trinity's drawing." Kristi replied with, "
Hi Tamara, I'm working on sending you an email shortly to ensure we're all on the same page. Thanks!"
On June 23, 2021, I received an email from Kristi Robich which read, "The decision to move forward with the current design was made by leadership. The artwork submitted by your daughter (and all submittals) were to be conceptual in nature." ** So, was she lying at the meeting we had at the hippo in front of city hall? Was she lying to my child?**
Kristi then sighted the release document that I signed with Trinity's artwork submission which stated, "If I am selected as a contest WINNER , I hereby grant and assign to the City of Hutto the exclusive right and permission, in respect of the original artwork that I have submitted to the City of Hutto “PAINT THE HIPPO” Art Contest, to use, re-use, publish, republish, and otherwise reproduce and display in any and all media now or hereafter known throughout the world for illustration, promotion, art, advertising, or other purposes whatsoever. By my signature I grant permission to the City of Hutto to publish in all print and electronic
media, the artist’s first name and last initial, age and school locale. All winning entries become the property of the City of Hutto."
Nowhere in the release form does it say or elude to the fact that the original artwork would be modified. They were covering themselves so they wouldn't be sued if they used it in various forms of advertising etc. Otherwise why would I encourage my first grade child to participate? Or I at the VERY LEAST would have told her, if you win though, they may change what it looks like. Ridiculous.
I took the liberty of polling my fellow Hutto community members. I showed Trinity's drawing and then I showed the completed painted Hippo. The citizens' opinions and/or feelings expressed are those of extreme upset!
People want it to match Trinity's drawing which they all agree has the innocence and charm of a young child and touches all ofctheir hearts as such. They all can relate to her drawing. Suggestions have been given by the community ranging from getting a petition, the community residents chipping in to pay for it to be repainted, to go to the upcoming city council meeting next week as a group to speak all of our minds, to contacting KVUE.
Mayor Snyder was tagged in one of my Facebook posts and has been reading all of the commentary. He has said to me directly in writing, "In reality, I don’t have much of any power. Just a voice and a social media presence. It’s really embarrassing."
So....here I am today requesting your help. Please help us make this right by these kids. I believe we have to hold our governing parties and those in leadership roles accountable. Our country has enough struggles staying united. This is one VERY IMPORTANT thing that the citizens of Hutto agree on and want to see corrected. The youth is our future. We have to show them that bullies cannot get away with this type of behavior (not in the household, not in the schools, not in the streets, not in the workplace, not city officials, and not the government.)
assinar petiçãoassinar petiçãoA group of Hutto ISD teachers did an in-house preliminary vote and selected 6 submissions as finalists. The 6 submitted drawings were put on the City of Hutto Municipal Government Facebook page. They asked the community to vote for their favorite 2 drawings. Over 400 votes were received. My daughter (a first grader) and another boy (a fourth grader) were the chosen winners.
The kids were both invited to a city council meeting on April 1, 2021 where their drawings were displayed on a large screen and the kids were given recognition by the city and Dr. Estrada Thomas, the Hutto ISD superintendent, for their incredible achievements. (They had competed against much older children and won!) Trinity's drawing was chosen to be painted on the city hall hippo. The other boy's drawing would be painted on the business district hippo. We were told the hippos would be painted over the following couple of weeks and then we would be invited back for the big reveal and photo-op.
As the painting of the city hall hippo began, the first thing we noticed was they painted green grass, the sky blue, some trees, as well as some random buildings in the background. They stenciled images of real human beings. None of these details were from Trinity's drawing.
I immediately began conversations with our Mayor, Mike Snyder. I expressed my concern and my child's upset feelings. Why would they invite young children to submit drawings only to go and adult them up? Why would we ask our kids to do something if it wasn't going to be good enough and needed to be changed? I wouldn't have encouraged my first grader to participate if that were the case. That's not the child's drawing they were painting on the hippo. He was in agreement and stated, "It was my understanding that the hippos would be painted to what the winning pictures were. I think it should be as closely representative as possible of what the actual drawing was. Reminds me of the cow parade series that was done." Mike gave me the contact information for Stacy Schmitt who works for the city manager.
Stacy and I had a very nice long conversation. She empathized as she has 4 children of her own and understood how a child would feel about this. She agreed that the paintings should look just like the original artwork. She also stated that the hippo that was being painted in the business district looked terrible because they had painted the background pink and purple, which also, was not in the little boys drawing.
She explained that the Hutto high school art teacher and her students were put in charge of painting the hippos (on a voluntary basis. Zero compensation). She assured me that she would talk directly with the art teacher and clarify the directives. The hippos were to be painted exactly like the two children's drawings.
On April 26, 2021 I followed up with Stacy via text message. She stated, "The art teacher was totally open to our feedback and will make changes when they resume painting this week."
The evening of May 24, 2021 we drove by city hall to see what the progress looked like. We were shocked and saddened to see the city hall hippo was not corrected at all! In fact, it had more paint added to the adulted version of the drawing. Why???
On May 25th and 26th, I tried calling Stacy. I left two messages, and then texted her cell phone twice. She never responded. I then reached back out to Mayor Snyder who in turn gave me the contact information to Kristi Robich, the manager of community outreach and programs.
On May 27, 2021, Kristi Robich and I spoke on the phone in length and scheduled an in-person meeting to discuss and clarify what we hoped to see happen. Kristi stated that she would ask the Hutto high school art teacher to attend the in-person meeting as well.
On June 1, 2021 @ 9:00am, my daughter, myself, Jennie James (a Hutto resident/artist/professional painter who paints all the homeowners' hippo statues around Hutto), and Krist Roblich met. (The art teacher couldn't make it for some reason).
Kristi stated the art teacher told her that the difficulty with painting the hippo is in trying to take a 2D drawing and paint it on a 3D object. (My daughter's drawing is a stick figure drawing.) The professional artist that attended this meeting, Jennie, explained that this is not a true issue and gave her professional perspective. She also offered to fix the painting if the city would compensate her as she does this for a living. Kristi Robich declined the offer as the art teacher is doing it on a voluntary basis.
Kristi even took the opportunity and spoke directly with my 1st grader that day. She asked, "Trinity, what do you think needs to be changed on the hippo painting to make it look more like the picture you drew?" Trinity told her, " It needs the yellow sunshine with a happy face on the hippo's booty. There needs to be an airplane, a kid riding their bike, girls saying hi to each other, and the kids need to have different colors of skin like my picture." I interjected and asked Trinity, "Do you want to tell her why you want their skin colors different?" Trinity replied, "Because we have all kinds of different skin kids here. Nobody should be left out." As you can imagine we were all impressed!!
By the end of the meeting, we had all come to an agreement that the art teacher would, once again, be given directives to correct the paintings and make them look as close to the original artwork as possible with stick figures and al. We did agreed that the grass would be fine if left green and the sky blue, but everything else needed to be redone to match Trinity's drawing.
On June 17, 2021, we drove by to see nothing had been changed on the hippo. I sent an text to Kristi Robich asking for an update. She stated, "Hi Tamara, thanks for checking in. I'm currently in training and will be back in the office next week. The hippo painting had started back up again this week and hopefully will be complete soon." Well, we could see this wasn't true. Still, I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt since she was out of the office (possibly out of town). Maybe there was a timeline miscommunication and perhaps the painting would be completed over that upcoming weekend.
The following Monday, June 21, 2021, we drove by the hippo and to our dismay....the hippo was not corrected at all! In fact more details, color, etc. had been added to the disputed painting. My daughter cried.
Tuesday, June 22, 2021, I sent a new text message to Krist. It said, "Hello. Will you please call me? I would like to offer my time to correct the hippo once and for all if the city will provide paint and paint brushes. Clearly the task did NOT get done as you indicated it would. They just added details to what was there. I am willing to make time to take care of it the way we discussed. The current painting is not Trinity's drawing." Kristi replied with, "
Hi Tamara, I'm working on sending you an email shortly to ensure we're all on the same page. Thanks!"
On June 23, 2021, I received an email from Kristi Robich which read, "The decision to move forward with the current design was made by leadership. The artwork submitted by your daughter (and all submittals) were to be conceptual in nature." ** So, was she lying at the meeting we had at the hippo in front of city hall? Was she lying to my child?**
Kristi then sighted the release document that I signed with Trinity's artwork submission which stated, "If I am selected as a contest WINNER , I hereby grant and assign to the City of Hutto the exclusive right and permission, in respect of the original artwork that I have submitted to the City of Hutto “PAINT THE HIPPO” Art Contest, to use, re-use, publish, republish, and otherwise reproduce and display in any and all media now or hereafter known throughout the world for illustration, promotion, art, advertising, or other purposes whatsoever. By my signature I grant permission to the City of Hutto to publish in all print and electronic
media, the artist’s first name and last initial, age and school locale. All winning entries become the property of the City of Hutto."
Nowhere in the release form does it say or elude to the fact that the original artwork would be modified. They were covering themselves so they wouldn't be sued if they used it in various forms of advertising etc. Otherwise why would I encourage my first grade child to participate? Or I at the VERY LEAST would have told her, if you win though, they may change what it looks like. Ridiculous.
I took the liberty of polling my fellow Hutto community members. I showed Trinity's drawing and then I showed the completed painted Hippo. The citizens' opinions and/or feelings expressed are those of extreme upset!
People want it to match Trinity's drawing which they all agree has the innocence and charm of a young child and touches all ofctheir hearts as such. They all can relate to her drawing. Suggestions have been given by the community ranging from getting a petition, the community residents chipping in to pay for it to be repainted, to go to the upcoming city council meeting next week as a group to speak all of our minds, to contacting KVUE.
Mayor Snyder was tagged in one of my Facebook posts and has been reading all of the commentary. He has said to me directly in writing, "In reality, I don’t have much of any power. Just a voice and a social media presence. It’s really embarrassing."
So....here I am today requesting your help. Please help us make this right by these kids. I believe we have to hold our governing parties and those in leadership roles accountable. Our country has enough struggles staying united. This is one VERY IMPORTANT thing that the citizens of Hutto agree on and want to see corrected. The youth is our future. We have to show them that bullies cannot get away with this type of behavior (not in the household, not in the schools, not in the streets, not in the workplace, not city officials, and not the government.)
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