Charlie Brown turned heads at his green carpet debut on the Windsor Town Green, sporting overalls and clumps of mud painted on his head, hands and feet on Aug. 26, for the town’s first Summer Nights on the Green concert.
Town officials, including Mayor Sam Salmon, Vice Mayor Rosa Reynoza and Councilmember Debora Fudge, made their way over for his informal introduction. Green Charlie Brown is planted on a pedestal on the grass at the Town Green’s southwest corner, counter to “RainJoe Snoopy” at the southeast corner of the park.
The paint was still drying on the new permanent statue of “Green Charlie Brown,” as enthusiastic artist Amber Rankin packed up her paint.
“I literally just finished,” she said, given one week to turn a white fiberglass statue into a model of the town’s history of farming, green eating and living, and local environmental consciousness.
These are the winning concepts from a contest in 2018 for the statue’s theme. The statue was donated by the Windsor Parks and Recreation Foundation, also known as People4Parks, which makes the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree Grove happen every year, according to an Aug. 19 press release from the Town of Windsor.
People4Parks blended ideas from Windsor residents. “Joy Fowler Hasselbeck with her entry of ‘Farmer Charlie’… Lisa Bollman with her entry of ‘Charlie the Gardener’ and … Remy Canto Adams with his entry of ‘Charming Charlie,’” the press release said.
“He combines themes of farming, agriculture for the history of our region, sustainability and green eating. So, he has scenes of farming and sustainability on his overalls and a pattern with symbols of recycling and fruits and vegetables you might need on his shirt,” Rankin said.
“And his head — he’s been working in the garden, and he’s dirty,” she added. “And he has a green thumb because he’s a gardener, and he’s holding seeds, standing in his garden bed.”
Rankin, a freelance illustrator and 2-D animator, grew up in Windsor and said she remembers thinking about the painting of local Peanuts statues from when she was in high school. In the past year, Rankin painted one of the town’s utility box murals, she said, the one at the nearby McDonald’s.
“I just think it’s really cute. It’s very encompassing of Windsor,” said Windsor resident Maryann Bainbridge-Krause. “I like the fact that we have one here now and Snoopy’s at the other end, too. I think that balances it out,” she said, noting how visitors are greeted by the two statues when they head onto the Green.
