What's up with that big blue baby in Hamilton?

HAMILTON - Expect the unexpected.

Those words are plastered on the cover of the Fitton Center for Creative Arts' program guide, and they're placed underneath an elegantly lit ceramic tile design of the city of Hamilton.

But that elegance stops on the first page.

Inside the front cover, three men are urinating. One is pictured looking back with his mouth ajar. The ceramic design, it turns out, cannot be found in one of the many galleries around the center's campus. It's in the bathroom.

Fitton Center Executive Director Ian MacKenzie-Thurley thought that might prompt some controversy.

It hasn't.

"Everybody got the joke," he said.

But a 9-foot bright blue statue placed in front of the arts center on Monument Avenue has more than made up for the lack of contention. Partially because it's not a joke, and it's not going anywhere for another year.

The statute depicts a baby, mouth open and eyes wide, hatching out of an egg. "Scary" and "weird" are two words commonly used to describe it. As is "ugly."

"It's so ugly. Whoever thought placing this in front of the Fitton Center ... was a good idea shouldn't be allowed to make decisions."

"That thing is creeping me out."

"Looks like a bad piece of garbage to me. Set it out for Rumpke."

So goes the general tenor of discussion about the statue on Facebook and other social media sites.

MacKenzie-Thurley doesn't mind.

"People either love it or they hate it. Nobody has walked past it and gone 'meh'," he said. "It's been divisive. People are talking about art. It’s started a really healthy conversation."

Beside conversation, it's given Hamilton residents a good place to take a selfie.

The executive director says he's seen people stop their cars and block traffic to get a photo as they pass. One person even dressed up as the blue baby for Halloween.

"It was a pretty good costume," MacKenzie-Thurley said.

The artwork is actually entitled "Hatched Baby," created by German artist Wolfgang Auer as part of several large-scale sculptures he made to coincide with the birth of his daughter in 2007.

"I can't explain it. I mean, it's got a full set of teeth," MacKenzie-Thurley said. "It's fun, it's whimsical, it doesn’t need to make any sense."

The sculpture, made of fiberglass and resin, will be displayed in Hamilton until next September. The executive director even commissioned new light fixtures so it's easier to see at night.

But for MacKenzie-Thurley, who was born in Australia and took over the arts center in May, the statue has already illuminated a statement some might find a little bold.

"Hamilton is one of the most exciting art centers in the Midwest right now," he said.

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He points to the movie "Tiger," which stars Mickey Rourke and is currently shooting in Hamilton. It's one of several films to partially shoot in Hamilton over the last few years.

And then he slaps the hard white front of Hatched Baby's egg, like a proud papa.

"To me, it all points to this artist's renaissance," MacKenzie-Thurley said. "But the arts are just one part of what is going on in this city."

Walking up the back stairs behind the statue, he looks out at the Great Miami River and smiles – like a man pleased to do his part.