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Blue Trees

March 22, 2013

Artist Konstantin Dimopoulos has radically transformed two groves of trees near Buffalo Bayou park for a public art project sponsored by the Houston Arts Alliance. On Friday and Saturday, volunteers helped Dimopoulos coat the tree trunks with ultramarine

Photography by Michael Hardy

The two groves are located on opposite sides of the cloverleaf formed by the intersection of Memorial Drive and Waugh Drive. This grove can best be seen from the Memorial West entrance ramp from North Waugh. On Friday, volunteers gathered to help Dimopou

Photography by Michael Hardy

Dimopoulos, pictured here, calls ultramarine blue "one of the most stunning colors ever developed. When it dries it's almost electric."

Photography by Michael Hardy

So many people volunteered to help paint that many had to be turned away. On Friday, Dimopoulos ladled pigment into the buckets of a group of students from Pin Oak Middle School. Seventh grader Caroline Lee and her partner painted six trees by themselves

Photography by Michael Hardy

Volunteer Martha Pokorny uses a paint roller to apply pigment higher up on the trunk.

Photography by Michael Hardy

The second grove to get the blue treatment is located along the South Waugh exit off East Memorial. Dimopolous says he often has to deny that photographs of the trees have been photoshopped.

Photography by Michael Hardy

So far, most of the Twitter chatter about "Blue Trees" has come from people who see the grove while driving past and wonder what it is. The trees are relatively hard to reach on foot, although a group of joggers regularly uses one of the groves as a meet

Photography by Michael Hardy

Dimopolous wants "Blue Trees" to make people view nature in a new way. "In reality there are no blue trees, so people have to imagine why they got that way," he says. "They have to make up their own stories about them. If they were green or red people wo

Photography by Michael Hardy

Kate Yadan, the Houston Arts Alliance's director of development, compares "Blue Trees" to Dr. Seuss's ecologically-minded book "The Lorax." "He bills himself as an eco-warrior, which I love," Yadan says. "I call him the Lorac."

Photography by Michael Hardy

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Artist Konstantin Dimopoulos has radically transformed two groves of trees near Buffalo Bayou park for a public art project sponsored by the Houston Arts Alliance. On Friday and Saturday, volunteers helped Dimopoulos coat the tree trunks with ultramarine blue pigment, which Dimopoulos says is non-toxic and should wash away naturally in 6-7 months.
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Public Art, Konstantin Dimopoulos
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