South panel with redtail hawk & mountain lion tracks
East Panel with Poudre River, mountains, magpies, & deer tracks
City of Fort Collins Transformer Mural Project
The Cache la Poudre river is plays an important part of Ft. Collins history and identity. This mural depicts many of the creatures that use the Poudre River on a regular basis. Because these creatures come from many places and use the river in many different ecological zones I borrowed from the Native American idea of the Four Directions to depict this concept. The Native American interpretation assigns the color red to the south, white to the east, yellow to the north, and blue to the west. In this mural I have used local birds that to represent those directions; the red tail hawk for the south (red), the magpie for the east (white, sunrise), goldfinch for the north (yellow), and the great blue heron for the west. The animal tracks range from bear to mouse. People often refer to this as their “favorite” box. (Thanks!)
Mary Harnett 