Truckee got its first highly visible piece of public art in November when town employees erected ‘Mountain Flowers,’ donated by local artist Troy Corliss. The cluster of three, 16-foot-tall metal flowers now stand in the middle of the Pioneer Trail roundabout, across from the new Truckee Community Recreation Center.
The sculpture, valued by Corliss at $30,000, was installed using $15,000 from the town’s general fund approved by the Town Council in September.
In submitting his initial concept to the town, Corliss wrote: ‘Flowers have a broad appeal. I have selected a flower type that is iconographic to the grasslands and chaparral region common to this locale without being too specific to attract the hard scrutiny of devout botanists. Within this civic context residents and visitors of the Town of Truckee can see the work as a playful exaggeration of a common theme.’
In the town’s general plan update finalized in 2006, the town adopted policies relating to the incorporation of public art into town gateways to ‘create a distinct sense of arrival and a positive image of Truckee.’
‘I think [the sculpture] will be good for the town,’ said Corliss during the installation. ‘It’ll provide a bit for momentum for future projects.’
Corliss created a series of very similar sculptural flowers for a walkway outside the Target store in Sunnyvale, which were installed in October 2009. (See Moonshine Ink Vintage 7, Nip 11, ‘Local Artists Create Sculpture for Target Store.’)
