Gaea the vaginal beaver vandalized

Image via Facebook

Gaea and Deborah Davis

​It appears the prudes may have struck again: Gaea the vaginal beaver has been defaced. Someone has painted a vertical black stripe on the sculpture, one of 10 beaver sculptures on display throughout Bemidji.

Local cops were on the scene last night to photograph the damage.

"Just walked by and saw that someone has spray painted over the "Objectionable" depiction," wrote Amanda Mattila on Gaea's Facebook page. "How sad. I just don't understand. I hope that the spray paint can be removed."

Image via Facebook

Beaver or vagina?

​Gaea's creator, Deborah Davis, calls her work a celebration of womanhood that depicts a human rising from a bed of roses on the belly of the beaver. Others see something else: a vagina.

"We each feel so passionately about art. That's what art is meant to do, in my opinion, evoke emotion, thought... inspire," Davis wrote on Facebook. "BUT I would say I dont like to, and usually WON'T, explain my art. I try to skip out of my own openings. I think once I've done a piece, it's up to the viewer to interpret. I can't tell them how to see the blue, or even imagine HOW they do see blue. Every perception of EVERYTHING is different. And I can't tell them they are wrong, for that's how that has touched them. To me it's about the emotion of the piece, not the facts of the piece."

City Manager John Chattin response to the piece in July, after fielding complaints, was to censor Gaea, removing her from public view. An outcry followed, as well as a city council special session. The beaver's fans won the day and the sculpture was returned to the street -- with a procession: