Yard Sculpture Beats Drought--and Grows : Conservation: Located across from Ventura City Hall, the eclectic art has attracted admirers while adding some color to the dried-out greenery.

Since the city of Ventura enacted a mandatory water conservation ordinance in March, residents with big lawns have been looking for ways to cut down on irrigation without seeing their yards turn ugly and dry.

Some people have replaced lush green grass with drought-resistant plants. Others have opted to cover their yards with gravel.

Musician Walter Stowe, 31, has come up with a more creative--and inexpensive--solution: He has replaced the greenery in his front yard with an eye-catching sculpture garden.

“With the drought and the water cuts, we weren’t being able to keep the yard as green as we like it, so we decided to make it beautiful in another way,” said Stowe, who makes a living singing with a local rock band.

The sculpture garden, which was started two months ago, is a work in progress. It features an eclectic collection of scrap materials, most of them put together by Stowe, his sculptor girlfriend, Elisabeth Montague, and neighbors from adjoining apartments who share the yard with Stowe.

Every week, it seems, an object is added to the collection--sometimes by anonymous donors who drop off their contributions late at night.

“It’s a collective effort,” Stowe said proudly.

There’s a dead tree branch covered with plaster, with plaster leaves hanging from its sides. There’s a papier-mache child standing under a papier-mache donkey. A worthless television set with a rock on top of it. A chicken wire “hill” held up by wooden props, and a door frame at the garden’s entrance with a yellow croquet ball on top of it.

Located across the street from Ventura City Hall, the sculpture garden has attracted its fair share of admirers, Stowe said. “All the time we see cars stopping and people taking pictures,” he said. “It’s been a big success.”

One admirer is Community Development Director Everett Millais, whose office overlooks Stowe’s yard. While the sculpture pieces are not exactly his idea of fine art, Millais said the garden is an asset to the community.

“I enjoy it,” he said. “It adds interest to downtown. While they’re not my favorite pieces of art, they’re whimsical and fun.”

Stowe, a self-proclaimed public art fanatic, hopes his garden will bring more attention to local artists and inspire the city to invest more funds in public art.

So far, the biggest beneficiary of this window of opportunity for local artists has been Montague, who is responsible for about two-thirds of the objects in the yard. “I wasn’t showing anywhere,” she said, referring to her lack of success in convincing art galleries to exhibit her work. “This is the perfect way to show.”

For his part, Stowe is no stranger to using art to make public statements. In June, he used trash collected at San Buenaventura State Beach to put together a series of odd-looking sculptures along the promenade between the Ventura Pier and Surfers Point.

The sculptures--made from empty cigarette packs, beer and cat food cans, soda bottles, broken glass and twisted metal--did not last long before city workers razed them.

But by then, Stowe said, he had accomplished his objective. “The city got the point,” he said. “If you go to that part of the beach now, it’s squeaky clean.”

The sculpture garden, Stowe said, isn’t trying to make a statement, but he hopes that it will promote creative recycling of scrap materials and water conservation in the city.

“I guess it’s anything you want it to be,” he said. “The yard was getting ugly, and we decided to give it some color.”