There's the Lucy We Love! Get a First Look at the New Lucille Ball Statue
It looks like Lucy's got that Vitametavegamin taste out of her mouth – she's finally smiling!
PEOPLE can exclusively unveil the replacement statue for "Scary Lucy," the bronze work of art in the town of Celoron, New York, that made a menacing figure out iconic (and quite beautiful) comedian Lucille Ball.
The new statue, created by sculptor Carolyn Palmer to replace the original work of art, is much more lifelike and features Ball in a polka dot dress.
Ball is standing – at 6 ft. tall – on a copy of her Hollywood star, and has a purse on her wrist and a string of pearls around her neck.
"Sculpting Lucille Ball was such an honor," Palmer tells PEOPLE. "I just hope everyone is pleased with my work as I gave her my all."
Palmer watched countless I Love Lucy episodes to "capture her spirit," noting that she particularly loved "Lucy Becomes a Sculptress."
"She's covered in clay and plays a sculpture of herself," she shares. "That was truly surreal."
Palmer was unanimously selected from a national competition of more than 65 sculptors to work on the project, according to Entertainment Weekly.
After a public outcry arose when sculptor Dave Poulin's original Lucy statue was unveiled in 2009, Poulin actually offered to fix the sculpture at his own expense, acknowledging, "In retrospect, it should have never been cast in bronze and made public, and I take complete ownership of that poor decision."
The new statue will be officially unveiled Saturday in Ball's hometown of Celoron.
