Phantom Sculptor Leaves Guerrilla Art In Boulder, Colorado

Donna Coughlin received a surprise lawn sculpture, which she believes to be from Mark Guilbeau, a "phantom sculptor" who'd struck her house 23 years earlier.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on January 23 2011

Last month, 80-year-old Boulder resident Donna Coughlin peered out of her window late at night to a startling vision. A 15-foot-tall steel and cement sculpture stood in the center of her lawn.

The sculpture must have weighed at least several hundred pounds, but not a single blade of grass was out of place. “Detectives can’t figure out how they got the darn thing in there without leaving any drag marks behind,” Cmdr. Kim Stewart of the Boulder Police Department told the Daily Camera. “It’s odd—it’s like it’s perfectly placed there.”

Along with the sculpture was a gift for Coughlin: a pair of earrings in a small box, along with a note with letters cut from a magazine: “We hope u enjoy this thing.”

Although the artist didn’t leave a calling card, Coughlin is pretty sure she knows the culprit. He’d struck her house before, more than 23 years ago.

In 1987, Coughlin had walked outside to discover a giant bug sculpture on her lawn. She was amused by the spectacle, and named it “Tron Toelite.” Two weeks after the bug’s delivery, Coughlin spotted the artist disassembling the sculpture, and went outside to talk with him.

The sculptor, Mark Guilbeau, was an MFA student at University of Colorado. “The guy was just as nice as can be,” she said. He invited her to the campus for a tea party and sculpture viewing. That year, he also surprised several other Boulder residents with sculptures.

Coughlin hasn’t talked to the artist in years, but she’s learned that he was recently in the area for a visit. Now she’s eager to track him down for a reunion—and, though she appreciates the sentiment, she’ll be happy when he removes the sculpture again. “I can’t exactly say that the thing is cute,” she said.

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Filed under: Arts and Culture, Weird,

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