Idyllwild, Brigadoon, art and contracts

In Brigadoon, a town in the Highlands of Scotland that magically reappears in present time for one day every hundred years, a local sculptor was hired by town luminaries to sculpt a statue of the town minister. The minister, knowing that the town was being threatened by witches and demons, went beyond the town to pray for a miracle to preserve his town. The miracle that God granted made the town vanish into the Highland mists. For residents, each new day was just that, another new day. But in reality, each day was 100 years later. The minister had sacrificed himself and had saved the town thereby preserving its idyllic way of life.

The local sculptor signed a contract for a set fee to create the statue of the minister . He agreed to complete it by a certain festival date and to supply all materials that would be needed to create his work of art. Townspeople donated to the cause and looked forward to the unveiling.

The date for the festival and unveiling came and went. The sculptor insisted that town luminaries had agreed, prior to his signing the contract, to quarry and provide the stone for the sculpture. Town luminaries insisted that the contract spoke for itself and that they had made no side agreement prior to the signature of the contract. Some local men volunteered to quarry the stone. They delivered it to the sculptor who complained that it was not quite what he wanted and needed in order to complete this definitive work of his career. The sculptor kept adding to the project, stating that he wanted to fashion a work of art that the whole world would come to see. When town luminaries pointed out that the whole world would have a difficult time getting to Brigadoon given its isolation and the nature of the "miracle," the sculptor scoffed, holding fast to his vision. Consequently, the price for the statue continued to go up, and local donors and town luminaries began to worry if it would ever be finished and whether obtaining a finished product might bankrupt the town's meager coffers.

As of this writing, the standoff continues. The sculptor continues to work at his own pace, observing that the stone he was provided was of poor quality, that his vision for the project suffers as a consequence, that it could take years to complete the statue, and that it might be better to start over with proper stone. Because of the "miracle," each day of delay in completing the statue of the minister, is 100 years in real time. So it would not be hyperbole to say that it might take an eternity to complete a project that donors and town luminaries had hoped to have had in place years before as a tribute to and celebration of the minister, his miracle, and .