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Frog Statue Stirs Debate in LA

Los Angeles, CA – At just 42 inches high and cast in bronze, the whimsical frog wears an expectant smile as he patiently awaits a kiss to turn him into a prince.

But that show of affection may never come, at least from some neighbors who object to the proposed location of his new lily pad, the 1-acre Miramar Park just above Torrance beach.

“I’m not objecting to any art,” said Ken Vroom, who lives across from the park in the Vista Bahia condominium complex. “I’m concerned about kids (climbing on it) getting hurt and also about setting a precedent.”

What if, he wondered, someone wanted a sculpture of an elephant there? Would the city of Torrance allow that as well?

Controversy about public art is nothing new.

Sometimes the issue is the cost of the piece. Sometimes there are questions about the meaning of abstract art. Sometimes there are obscenity issues. And sometimes there is suspicion about the donors and their motives.

But none of those apply to the cute frog inoffensively crouched on a rock next to several toadstools.

Called “Dreaming of the Kiss,” the sculpture is an early work by Sedona, Ariz.-based artist Kim Kori, who specializes in charming sculptures of small animals with human attributes. Only 16 of this particular piece were cast and one recently sold for $30,000.

The sculpture was donated to the city by former Mayor Dan Walker in memory of his first wife, Sandi, who died three years ago.

For many years, the frog sat in the front yard of their Torrance home, obscuring the view of the street and a utility pole from the couple’s living room.

But Walker has since remarried – to a high school sweetheart whose first husband had also passed away – and earlier this year he sold his Torrance home and now splits time between residences in Rancho Santa Margarita and Palm Desert.

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