Seeing red over green trees
Creator of ‘Blue Trees’ at odds with city over reimagined installation
The “Blue Trees” artist accuses the city of plagiarizing his creation with a reimagined installation.
O UCH, the sting of controversy.
A hive of trouble erupted this week after the “Blue Trees” artist accused Houston’s parks and recreation department of plagiarizing the environmental installation he created five years ago by repainting the same groves of crape myrtles. This time, one grove is a vivid green and one is a light, baby blue.
Konstantin Dimopolous, who engaged dozens of volunteers to help make “Blue Trees Houston,” said the harmless paint formula he shared was developed over many years and is his intellectual property.
Parks department officials begged to differ, pointing out that trees have been painted for centuries, across cultures. But some members of Houston’s art community question why the city chose to replicate Dimopolous’ idea in the same spot.
“We thought we did our homework,” said Abel Gonzales, the parks department’s deputy director of greenspace management. He said he cleared the recent paint project last October with parks department planners who told him there were no other active agreements for art among the crape myrtle groves within the traffic cloverleafs at Waugh Drive and Allen Parkway.
He chose the same area Dimopolous had used because it’s a highprofile location, he said, and also because crape myrtles have smooth trunks that make them easier to paint than, say, oak trees.
The city has seeded wildflowers in that area for decades, and Gonzales envisioned a blanket of red phlox
“It looks horrible, and it really has no relevance anymore here.” Konstantin Dimopolous
blooming under the brightgreen trunks and yellow coreopsis under the baby-blue trunks to create an eye-popping scene that would become even more colorful by early June, when the crape myrtles begin to bloom in various shades of pink. He wanted to draw attention to the plight of disappearing pollinators in the urban landscape. The flowers, so far, have not been as prolific as he had hoped, perhaps affected by winter’s big freeze or more recent heavy rains.
Urban garden manager Rebecca Zielinski, who didn’t live in Houston when Dimopolous created his installation, came up with a formula for harmless paint based on trial and error — “just some lime wash with added pigment,” Gonzales said.
The trees were painted in February by volunteer youth from recreation centers across the city who learned about bees and butterflies in the process. Like “Blue Trees Houston” before them, the repainted trees quickly caught the attention of bloggers and became a hot spot for selfies.
Dimopolous said he was not after money or a lawsuit, but he did want an apology — and he wants the new paint removed, because people think the new work is his.
“It looks horrible, and it really has no relevance anymore here,” said Dimopolous, who is in Houston working on a large commercial commission. He is building “Windgrass,” a tall, sticklike kinetic sculpture for Bridgeland, next to entrance signage for the 11,400-acre, master-planned community along the Grand Parkway near Cypress.
Gonzales and others in the parks department aren’t likely to concede that they’ve done anything wrong. “We’re sorry he’s upset, but no one even thought about him,” Gonzales said.
Dimopolous’ “Blue Trees” project has appeared in about 20 cities around the world since 1999 to draw attention to deforestation and the importance of trees as the “lungs” of the planet. The Houston Arts Alliance, partnering with the parks department, brought the artist to Houston in 2013 after a devastating drought that decimated the city’s tree canopy.
Members of Houston’s art community, responding via Facebook, were divided.
“Intellectual property matters,” said Tommy Gregory, who was involved in Dimopolous’ Houston commission and now directs the public art program at the city’s airports.
Conceding that tree painting is not a new concept, some people were disappointed to see the city repeating an artist’s gesture. At the very least, it looks unimaginative, when the parks department could have engaged another artist to create something more unique, while still working with area kids.
“While Houston fights over being the city with the most ‘original Kapoor Bean,’ this seems a bit embarrassing,” said artist Laura Spector.