The two bright orange and lime green metal trees in the Capri Centre parking lot standout starkly against the wintry backdrop.
Their creator, Red Deer City Councillor Paul Harris, hopes the message behind Growth, his first piece of public art, will get similar attention.
Harris created the trees and gifted them to the Capri Centre during the October election campaign, when he was protesting some of the recent developments around Red Deer.
Specifically, Harris hates what city planners have done to 32nd Street at Gaetz Avenue.
The intersection was widened and a row of lovely older real trees were cut down as a result.
“I think it was a bad decision,” said Harris, who doesn’t think the road widening project was needed or well designed.
“I think we’ll see more accidents.”
When people think of personal growth, they think of education and learning, said Harris.
“When we think of community growth, we think of more roads and using up farmland.”
He would like more thought to be put into what community growth should be.
“Cars are important, but are not the only way to move in a city,” said Harris, who’s looking forward to the results of a new city transportation study that will look at “different ways we should be moving around the city as the city changes.”
Harris, a painter and sculptor and co-owner of the Sunworks store, plans to move his piece of public art about seven metres south to a permanent installation at the corner of 32nd Street and Gaetz Avenue in the spring — along with his artist statement.
If passersby think of the metal trees as a sort of memorial for the real trees that were lost on that corner, then so be it, said Harris, whose artwork was fabricated by Gentex and Routertec.
“I think the corner lacks character now.”
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com