Ready to take flight
Pollinator Park volunteers place giant monarch art installation
The volunteer who created the Pollinator Park’s new monarch sculpture stand alongside it shortly after it was placed in the park on Tuesday. In photo: Kay Martin (left), Joe Gartner (back), Julie Gartner (front) and Deb Steinberg (right). Photo by Clay Schuldt
The eight-foot-wide wooden monarch sculpture was placed in the New Ulm’s Pollinator Park Tuesday. The sculpture will remain in the park through autumn. Photo by Clay Schuldt
Pollinator Park volunteer Joe Gartner said took roughly 40 hours for him to draw the outline for the park’s new monarch sculpture. It took another couple weeks for volunteers to paint it. Photo by Clay Schuldt
The Pollinator Park monarch sculpture is the first step in a larger art installation plan. The idea is to eventually have a sculpture representing all four stages of the monarch lifecycle in the park. Volunteers began with single wooden sculpture as a low-cost way to start. Photo by Clay Schuldt
The volunteer who created the Pollinator Park’s new monarch sculpture stand alongside it shortly after it was placed in the park on Tuesday. In photo: Kay Martin (left), Joe Gartner (back), Julie Gartner (front) and Deb Steinberg (right). Photo by Clay Schuldt
The eight-foot-wide wooden monarch sculpture was placed in the New Ulm’s Pollinator Park Tuesday. The sculpture will remain in the park through autumn. Photo by Clay Schuldt
Pollinator Park volunteer Joe Gartner said took roughly 40 hours for him to draw the outline for the park’s new monarch sculpture. It took another couple weeks for volunteers to paint it. Photo by Clay Schuldt
The Pollinator Park monarch sculpture is the first step in a larger art installation plan. The idea is to eventually have a sculpture representing all four stages of the monarch lifecycle in the park. Volunteers began with single wooden sculpture as a low-cost way to start. Photo by Clay Schuldt
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NEW ULM - No, that is not Mothra in New Ulm's Pollinator Park. It is actually a new wooden sculpture created by park volunteers.
The eight-foot-wide monarch sculpture was put in place Tuesday evening by volunteers.
"It is a low-cost way of adding some new art to the park," volunteer Deb Steinberg said.
Fellow volunteer Joe Gartner purchased the wood for the project and traced the outline for the monarch using a projector. He said it took roughly 40 hours to outline the sculpture.
It took another few weeks for Steinberg, Kay Martin and Julie Gartner to fully paint the massive monarch.
Actually placing the monarch in the park took another six hours. Joe Gartner said he and Bob Beck struggled to get the posts in the ground as the area was relatively rocky.
The monarch sculpture has been on the wish list for Pollinator Park volunteers for a few years, but this is only the first step.
Steinberg said they hope to add other sculptures that show the entire lifecycle of the monarch, starting with the caterpillar stage. In addition, the wooden monarch sculpture is only a temporary installation.
Joe Gartner said he was not sure the wooden monarch sculpture would hold up through winter. They plan to take it down before the snow buries it. It can go up again in the spring.
Steinberg said eventually they hope to have metal sculptures on the site that can remain up year-round, but they are still raising money for the permanent sculpture.
For now, the park volunteers hope to have the wooden sculpture up during the monarch season.
Steinberg said there are still some monarchs in the New Ulm area, but the majority have already left for Mexico.
The monarch sculpture will remain up for at least the next several weeks. Pollinator Park volunteers hope it will attract visitors to the park to explore and take photos.
Steinberg said if a person stand in the right place during a photo it will look like they have butterfly wings. There is a wood post with a phone stand about six-feet from the sculpture to help visitor take the perfect selfie.
"It will look like people are ready to take flight," she said.