Ted Pelkey from Vermont says the sculpture is the product of a battle more than 10 years in the making with local town officials.
the middle finger is for the Westford Selectboard, Development Review Board, and other town leaders, who have blocked his efforts to get a permit to build a garage, so he could move his truck repair and recycling businesses in nearby Swanton to his own property.
The statue is a large hunk of carved wood. Pelkey placed it on a high pedestal so it could be seen from the road, and surrounded it with floodlights to keep it illuminated at night.
Pelkey’s giant wooden middle finger falls under the category of public art, they can do what they like to exercise their free speech within the laws.
Pelkey said that finding out that the sculpture was considered “public art” was the “most wonderful thing I’ve ever been told in my life.”
The sculpture cost him $4,000 and is made of a 700-pound block of pine.
