Sparks fly over bird art
At 80 years old Elaine Rowe doesn’t fit the description of a typical graffiti artist.
But that’s how she is being portrayed after painting birds on several Powerco-owned power boxes in Tokoroa.
Rowe does highly detailed, textured landscapes that have been sold around the world but they are not appreciated on Powerco’s boxes because of the risk to her safety.
Elaine says artists in other towns in New Zealand have been allowed to paint power boxes so she set about painting the ‘‘moss and mildew covered’’ ones in Tokoroa, near Lake Moananui, starting with the one outside her own place.
It was a form of therapy after losing her husband Max to cancer earlier this year.
‘‘We had a big place in Rotorua but in August last year we came over here for a nice quiet retirement together,’’ she said.
‘‘We both just loved it here and then my husband was diagnosed with cancer in January. It was a melanoma in the liver and it was terminal.’’
Seven months later Max died and Rowe was alone with a broken heart. Her adult children were all in the United Kingdom.
‘‘I have been struggling but when I started living again I thought, ‘Well, I have got to do something for others.’
‘‘I have got wonderful memories but I need to look ahead,’’ she said.
‘‘We had already painted the power box the same colour as our fence so I thought I would go and paint a little bird, a fantail, on there.
‘‘I then thought, well, some of the other boxes around here could be done too. My neighbour wanted one so I tidied that up and then started doing a few others.
‘‘I love nature and Max did too. I have worked with it all my life and I felt it was therapy for me to be able to get out of myself and do something.’’
Despite a flood of support from the community and the South Waikato District Council, Powerco has told Elaine to cease painting the boxes at once.
Powerco group health safety environment and quality manager Julie McAvoy said it was a safety risk.
‘‘We take safety very seriously and for the general public to begin water blasting and painting power boxes without any communication with Powerco is very dangerous,’’ she said.
‘‘The power boxes are live and so any excess water, paint or any substance is not safe.’’
Danny Gough, spokesman for Unison who runs a transformer box painting competition in Rotorua, said if precautionary measures were being followed then there was no risk of artists being harmed.
‘‘Although they are live, they are fully enclosed so they are safe to work on,’’ he said.