From the moment it was unloaded from a flatbed truck Tuesday, Oak Harbor’s newest piece of public art drew stares from passersby.

As the week progressed, more people stopped to get an up-close look. Some even took pictures.

“This will be a real imagination grabber,” said Oak Harbor’s Wayne Lewis, who drove into town Wednesday, parked his vehicle and checked out the sculpture.

“I couldn’t miss it. It’s hard to miss.”

This was the sort of reaction that supporters of the 8-foot-tall sculpture of a legendary sea monster attacking a Nautilus submarine were hoping for.

Controversial from the outset, the kraken made its much-anticipated splash this week, arriving downtown and becoming an immediate talking piece.

The copper-and-steel artwork, created by Oregon sculptor Bill Hunt, was purposely positioned on a sidewalk near the intersection of Southeast Pioneer Way and City Beach Street to wow visitors as they enter historic downtown.

“We wanted to get people’s attention, make it the Fremont Troll of Oak Harbor,” said Skip Pohtilla, chairman of the city’s arts commission.

“Fremont’s got the troll, Oak Harbor’s got the kraken.

“We tried to get a piece that would pique interest and get people talking.”

Not all talk was positive as the piece has drawn criticism from the city’s mayor and even members of the Oak Harbor Arts Commission, which couldn’t unanimously agree on the concept.

The original conceptual drawing, submitted four years ago by Hunt and his late wife, Rebecca, of a harbor seal family and kelp bed was scrapped after the commission requested a bolder idea.

The kraken depicts a giant octopus made famous in Jules Verne’s 1870 novel, “Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.” The sculpture shows an octopus swallowing up a Nautilus submarine, a depiction that leaves Mayor Scott Dudley scratching his head because of Oak Harbor’s close relationship with Whidbey Island Naval Air Station.

“Being a premier naval town, would I have selected an octopus dragging down a submarine? Probably not,” Dudley said.

Dudley’s issue with the art piece runs deeper than the kraken itself. He’s critical of how public art projects are funded in Oak Harbor and said he’s raised the issue with the council twice during the past year.

Art projects in Oak Harbor are funded by a 0.25 percent utility tax on water, sewer and garbage.

The Arts Commission, composed of seven community members, recommends projects for city council approval.

The kraken cost $33,000.

“What we have in Oak Harbor is that anybody who receives a utility bill gets taxed (for art projects) whether they like it or not,” he said.

“And I don’t think anybody likes it.”

Arts commissions in other cities typically raise money for art projects privately. Dudley questions why Oak Harbor doesn’t follow suit.

“I wish we didn’t create a situation where the Arts Commission felt compelled to throw money at art on an ongoing basis because they have to. After the kraken, there will be another art piece. And there will be another art piece after that. And another art piece after that.

“The question I’ve raised in the past is, ‘When is enough enough?’”

The kraken is the last of four art projects approved by the city for downtown as part of the 2011 Pioneer Way remodel project.

Made of bronze and fabricated metal, the kraken sculpture is a work that started about nine months ago, Hunt said.

It’s a sentimental piece for him, representing the last project he and his wife of 35 years collaborated on together. Rebecca Hunt, a graphic designer and stained-glass artist, died in July.

“Rebecca was the one who drew the conceptual drawing for this,” Bill Hunt said. “If I signed it, I would sign it Bill and Rebecca.”

The giant octopus is made of hammered copper and the Nautilus submarine is made of steel treated with a chemical that will turn the rust into dark-colored iron phosphate, creating an industrial look.

Hunt hopes the project would be completed by early next week. He and his brother-in-law Jeff Baggett still needed to complete the final pieces of the project, which mostly involved building and painting a colorful concrete base that will resemble ocean waves.

The artwork also features tentacles that climb up a nearby pole, giving the allusion that they travel underneath the pavement.

“I love it,” said Lewis, a fellow sculptor who has two pieces on display in the city. “It’s certainly ambitious.”

“All in all, (the reception) has been positive,” Baggett said. “A couple people said they thought the city should be doing different things. That’s just the way it is.”

Hunt’s rendering is of a giant Pacific octopus, which are found in Pacific Coast waters and ties it to Puget Sound.

With this project nearly wrapped up, the arts commission is targeting other sites around the city for future pieces.