Ellen and Robert Green, the original painters of Frog Rock, one of Bainbridge’s most iconic pieces of public art, returned to their masterpiece May 3 for a commemorative touch-up.

But what started as a “Paint Night” prank during the Green’s high school graduation night in 1971 spurred a wider public art movement on the island, a force that has become a defining characteristic of the island’s culture.

Denise Stoughton, BI arts advocate, got in touch with the Greens while researching her upcoming book on the island’s “quirky” art culture. The couple had no idea how important their legacy was, she said, and she wanted them to have their moment in the spotlight.

“[The Greens] gave us this beautiful landmark, but they haven’t seen any recognition for it, or profit or anything. I wanted them to feel appreciated and loved,” Stoughton said. “People were so excited to meet them. Longtime residents love the frog, and understand it’s part of BI’s quirkiness, to go out and express art in so many ways.”

Frog Rock was not always a rock, or a frog. Before Ellen and Robert added the frog, the rock was repainted every year by Bainbridge High School’s graduating class.

In 1971, the rock was pink with grey polka dots, and someone had scrawled “NK Lives” on it —“which we couldn’t let stand,” Ellen Green said. She and a friend initially were thinking of painting the rock to look like a duck, but Bob Green was adamant: “Oh, no. It looks like a frog,” he said.

A gallon of green paint later, the frog emerged — and it stayed. The following year, Ellen and Bob and some friends camped out by their frog all through Paint Night to guard it from getting defaced, adding the ladybug that same night. But no challengers emerged, and from then on, Frog Rock lived.

As the couple moved around Puget Sound to college in Seattle and the Eastside for work, they would return every so often to visit their families and refresh the paint. Other residents began to do touch ups too, they noticed, which was unique: until Frog Rock, there was not much public art on the island, Ellen Green recalled. Frog Rock seemed to change that.

“Kids would paint the water tower, and there have been a lot of artists on Bainbridge forever, but there wasn’t so much public art back then,” Ellen Green said. “Now everywhere you go, there seems to be something. Somebody held a contest to decorate those fiberglass frogs around in front of businesses; that preschool bought that giant bear that used to be in front of the toy store; our friend built the ‘Hobbit House’ on High School Road.”

“I hope we add more, and that it moves into Kingston,” Bob Green added. The couple lives in Kingston near their family now.

Frog Rock also seems to elicit interaction from the public, the Greens observed. People have added baseball caps, giant sunglasses, a knocked-over stop sign in its mouth, a ghost costume, and more. More public art should encourage “embellishments,” Ellen Green said.

“I want to see the island add more hands-on, less industrial, metal-based art — things that are more soft, like Pia the Troll. I love that blending of nature and the surroundings with an artistic idea, to create something more,” said Ellen Green.

Frog Rock back to its original paint, as it appeared in 1971.