by Chris Butler, Tennessee WatchDog Yet another California artist gets taxpayer money for TN public art. A Los Angeles artist will design one of Memphis’ most expensive public art projects at taxpayer expense, according to Memphis TV station WREG. The “I Am a Man” art project will cost $700,000, the station reported, adding it’s one of the city’s most expensive public art projects. As Tennessee Watchdog reported last year, city officials paid another California artist $300,000 to create a 103-foot-tall sculpture near the Memphis International Airport. As Tennessee Watchdog also reported, Nashville officials paid $300,000 last year for an exhibit commemorating the Civil Rights movement, but the artist lived some 2,000 miles away in Oakland, California. Three years ago, Nashville taxpayers paid $750,000 so an abstract artist from California could construct large multi-colored sticks and place them partially upright near the Music City Center downtown. Meanwhile, “Tool Fire,” built in 2013, consists of several shovels, rakes and pickaxes glued together and placed on display along the Shelby Bottoms Greenway. For that project, the city paid an Alabama artist $30,000. Nashville taxpayers also paid two Seattle artists $350,000 to create a sculpture at Nashville’s West Riverfront Park symbolizing the…
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