Originally published June 14, 2011 at 8:53 AM | Page modified June 15, 2011 at 7:11 AM

Tagged Fremont Troll's blemishes cleaned up

The Fremont Troll under the Aurora Bridge has been cleaned up after it was tagged.

Corey Scherrer from the Fremont Arts Council repairs the vandalized Fremont Troll with a concrete slurry to cover the spray paint on Tuesday. Scherrer said the sculpture gets tagged a couple of times a year and that the slurry strengthens the structure of the Troll.

Top comments Hide / Show comments

Actually, an appropriate punishment for any tagger should be a week cleaning up public... (June 14, 2011, by robert the bruce) Read more

Its interesting that taggers, who consider themselves forefront urban artists, are... (June 14, 2011, by Canyonlandman) Read more

It was only a matter of time before some vandal, oops sorry graffiti "artist"... (June 14, 2011, by Mrs Barker) Read more

Read all 89 comments > Post a comment >

A black smile stretched across the face of the Fremont Troll under the Aurora Bridge. Its eye was circled in black and an "X" was marked on its head.

Someone tagged the Fremont Troll over the weekend, and the Fremont Arts Council hosted a cleanup party Tuesday night.

"People are going to do stupid things; it happens," said Corey Scherrer, the council's unofficial troll repairman during Tuesday's cleanup.

Scherrer, a local artist, said he mixes sand topping with a colored bonding agent and then slathers on the concrete slurry by hand over the spray-painted portions of the sculpture. At first, it might look like the troll is wearing makeup, but the mixture dries lighter than it initially appears.

A handful of other volunteers arrived under the Aurora Bridge on Tuesday to help clean up the troll in time for this weekend's Summer Solstice in Fremont. Scherrer said it usually takes about two hours to repair the sculpture after it's vandalized.

Ahren Scholtz, a University of Washington graduate, said he heard about the cleanup on Facebook and decided to pitch in because he happened to be in the area.

Scholtz said he thought it was a shame the troll was tagged because it's a famous landmark that attracts visitors to Seattle. "I don't want them to see a spray-paint-covered sculpture," said Scholtz, who was sweeping up dirt around the troll.

The sculpture was commissioned in 1989 by the Fremont Arts Council to "do something more imaginative with the space ... than letting it turn into an urban grotto and tire dump," according to Historylink.org.

Community members voted on models created by five finalists. The Troll, created by a team led by sculptor Steve Badanes, was the overwhelming favorite. The sculpture, a monster under the bridge clutching a Volkswagen, was completed in seven weeks from rebar steel, wire and two tons of concrete.

Barbara Luecke, with the arts council, said Tuesday night that the troll is tagged several times a year and it's annoying to clean up. She said the tagging wasn't reported to Seattle police.

"I work in public art and taggers are the bane of our existence," she said.

Seattle Times staff reporters Susan Gilmore and Queenie Wong contributed to this report.