Decorah mural creates controversy

The work of an artist from northeastern Iowa known globally for hiscolorful, expressionist paintings is being labeled “pornographic” in hishometown. Brian Andreas painted a mural on an outside wall ofa Decorah bookstore, sparking protests from a handful of residents:Elizabeth Skeate owns Skeate Books, where the mural depicts amulti-colored girl walking across a tightrope — a metaphor for life. Whilebeauty may be in the eye of the beholder, Skeate says there’s nothingscandalous about the expressionist-style two-story painting.Some critics charge the painting is at least a traffic hazard, if notpornographic. The girl is painted in a free-form style that depicts no bodyparts, other than her limbs and head. Skeate says it’s a lot of outcry overnothing. Ironically, Andreas has been commissioned to do four more muralsin Decorah.