RANGELEY — Drivers around the Bald Mountain Road area are checking out the large whitefish sculpture recently installed at A.G. Newmyer’s summer home, known as the Oquossoc White House.

“People have already discovered it,” Newmyer said. “Strange cars pull into the driveway. People are asking who did it.”

Fishing a popular sport in the area, so a whitefish seemed appropriate, he said. The metal sculpture stands about 6 feet tall and about 6 feet across.

Once again, Mike Koob of Oquossoc has created a lawn ornament at Newmyer’s request. In 2012, Koob purchased half a car from a salvage yard and partially buried it in a hillside on Newmyer’s property. Koob also wired the taillights of the white vehicle to shine for night viewing.

Since then, a sign has been added, “No parking on the grass,” Newmyer said.

At the time, neighbors started guessing what the next lawn art might be and finally Newmyer was inspired to ask Koob for two whitefish, one leaping up and the other diving. Koob added a dragonfly and, as requested, painted it white.

The two men are neighbors and friends.

“I’m not an artist,” Koob said. “I fix cars during the day.”

Working with metal and using the same tools he does on cars, he said, is fun and relaxing.  

Newmyer provides the ideas. 

Koob’s daughter, a graphic designer, provided the pattern and he went to work cutting the pieces of steel.

Koob said the Rangeley Health and Wellness Pavilion auction organizers have asked him to create a piece for their event, he said.

Newmyer, an investment and management consultant, has lived summers in Oquossoc since 1955 and winters in Florida. He is a collector of mostly modern, representational life-like figures.

Most of the homes around the farmhouse are dark log-type, so Newmyer built a white farmhouse and garage and has white vehicles, he said. 

abryant@sunmediagroup.net

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