Locals criticized a statue made in the likeness of the First Lady Melania Trump in her hometown for being a "disgrace."
Residents from the area of Sevnica, Slovenia, in Central Europe, have derived a bustling trade from selling items and even food products with the image of one of their natives, the United States First Lady Melania Trump. But these locals became appalled when a wooden likeness of their countrywoman was raised in a field near the area.
The criticism was due to the appearance of the statue, which was poised on a plank that sprouted some shrubbery surrounding it. A local commented, saying that the statue was more of a "smurfette"---a small, blue, fictional, human-like female character from the Belgian comic franchise Smurfs---likeness rather than that of Melania.
Photographs of the said sculpture which recently came out this week depicted the FLOTUS' statue in a blue dress, presumably the attire she wore to her husband's 2017 inauguration. However, the image appears like it needs more than a facelift and does not come close to resembling Melania at all, sentiments which have been echoed by the residents of the area.
Another local had expressed that the life-size statue was "not okay" at all.
The creation was said to have been consigned by Brade Downey, who is a Berlin-based American artist from Kentucky. The project was undertaken by a Sevnica local, "amateur chainsaw sculptor" Ales Zupevc, known more familiarly in the area as "Maxi."
The sculptor has announced it as the very first life-size figure representing the FLOTUS anywhere. An inauguration of sorts had even been held Friday with several spectators.
Downey related on his Instagram that the commission was for a project he is working on, which will exhibit the creation. The documentary will feature the various stages of the creation of Melania's statue, which was carved with a chainsaw directly onto the tree which is still standing on the same spot it grew on.
It now stands squarely atop the stump of the tree, by the riverbank, and looks toward the subject's hometown.
The initiator of the undertaking also explained in his social media post that his reason for choosing Zupevc is that the rendering artist had been born during the same year as well as in the very hospital where the FLOTUS had been born.
Despite the negative comments the representation of Melania has garnered, Downey merely responded by saying he could "understand" people's reactions regarding how the statue "falls short" of presenting the First Lady's "physical appearance."
No comment has yet been forthcoming from the White House regarding this matter.
