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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us June 7, 2005 Art brings display closer to completion Sunflower installed at Walker is part of plan for four sculptures By Jennifer Squires Ashland Daily Tidings The second of four oversized metal flower sculptures was installed in the ecotone area in front of Walker Elementary School this morning. Metal Artist CHERYL GARCIA talks about the process of creating the sunflower, which will serve as a scientific model at Walker School. Orville Hector | Ashland Daily Tidings The yellow-and-orange sunflower, designed and constructed by Ashland artist Cheryl Garcia, is part of a $6,000 public art project to educate the public about native plants while adding beautiful, functional elements to the ecotone. “[Birds are] going to see these colors and come over,” Garcia told students from Tim Brady and Pat Scalo’s classes during the unveiling ceremony this morning. “Then they’re going to find the sunflower seeds and they’re not going to want to leave.” The sunflower joins a crimson columbine that was installed in January. Both are scientifically accurate and act as bird feeders. The columbine contains a hummingbird feeder, and the sunflower has a tray to hold sunflower seeds built into a leaf. “The idea is the seeds are ripe and they are falling off,” Scalo said this morning. “The flower also protects them.” Over the summer, Garcia will create a thistle sculpture and a grass stalk sculpture to complete the art installation. The project was spearheaded by Walker parent Mary Rogan and funded in large part by a $2,000 matching donation from Sandy Riley and James Adams of Ashland. The school is also planning to have a robin’s nest built large enough for three or four kids to sit in, and Talent artist Richard Jarell, who created art for the front of ScienceWorks, will make three salmon sculptures that will go with Paradise Creek in front of the school. City of Ashland workers are helping students dig up the small stream that has been flowing past the school in an concrete culvert for the last half-century. Scalo and Brady, the two teachers directing the project, and the school site council received a grant from the Jackson County Title III federal funds to “daylight” the creek. “Our focus was the community and we wanted to think about how to pull them in,” Scalo said. The ecotone in front of the school started as a 40,000-square-foot lawn in 1991. Fourth- and fifth-grade students decided to turn the area into a park by planting trees and, every year, a new group of students adds plants to the ecotone. “The idea is to get native plants growing here and make it a habitat for birds,” said Brady. The area is now used as a scientific lab where students can get outdoors to look at plants, birds and insects without leaving the school grounds. Three mini-ecosystems — a big-leaf maple woodland, a bog and a dry grass area — are represented. Students have also planted a small area with milkweed to create habitat for monarch butterflies. “It’s nice timing because, with the crowded school, it’s nice to be able to get outside and have some elbow room,” Scalo said. “All of this, I think, helps children to empathize with nature and to be more aware.” Staff writer Jennifer Squires can be reached at 482-3456 x 3019 or [email protected]. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Online Pharmacy Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations Hammocks Water Filter Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams