It's art, you philistine.

Three thousand windmills will glow on a Vail slope March 23- April 22, sculpting wind into light.

When gusts whirl the rotors atop each windmill, a small generator will power a tiny bulb that will beam down into the windmill shaft, brightening the mountain darkness. The light also will reflect in patterns off the snowy ground, increasing the interplay of wind and light.

The show depends on the blow: The stronger the wind blows, the brighter the show.

"We could get very unlucky and not have a single day of wind," said Patrick Marold, 32, the Denver artist who created The Windmill Project.

Scheduled to be installed next week, the art event is compliments of Vail's Art in Public Places. The program is perhaps best known for the 10th Mountain Division Memorial, a larger-than-life soldier in winter gear near the covered bridge at Vail Village.

The memorial is a patriotic statue, resolutely traditional - nothing that would ratchet up Vail's image as a destination for cutting-edge art as well as world- class skiing, shopping and money-spending in general.

Wind and landscape

"I think there is a sense the (Art in Public Places) board wants to take the visual arts in Vail to the next level," said Leslie Fordham, coordinator of the public art program. "They are the instigators."

Marold, a fourth-generation Coloradan who graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in 1993, conceived of lighting the night during a dark, windy winter in Iceland six years ago.

From 200 bulbs powered by arctic blasts in Iceland, Marold's project has grown to the 3,000 bulbs for Vail and maybe 10,000 bulbs in New Mexico in summer 2008, if he wins a contract to build a similar project to coincide with the Santa Fe Opera season.

"The piece is about the wind and the landscape and our relationship to them through a representation of light," Marold said. "I can't imagine anyone considering it obtrusive. It's not going to be Times Square."

Beginning Monday, Marold and his crew plan to drill holes into a frozen hillside along the Vail Golf Course for the 3,000 polycarbonate windmill shafts. Each 10- foot shaft will support the three wind cups that form the rotor, which will spin horizontal to the ground.

Marold estimates the installation will extend about the length of a football field but will be about half the width. The windmills will skirt a grove of trees, about one- eighth of a mile from the closest home and almost a half-mile from Interstate 70.

Authorities watching

Although the rotors will catch the wind whenever it blows, the installation's ethereal display can be appreciated best after dark, up close by sleigh or snowshoe or at a distance from the comfort of a car, the artist said.

The Colorado Department of Transportation and the State Patrol are alert to the possibility that unaware drivers on I-70 may brake and gawk, mistaking the windmills' luminosity for beam-me-up beacons from a spaceship calling at Vail.

"If this becomes an issue with people stopping on the roadway or in traffic lanes, we will conduct parking control as well as traffic control to keep traffic moving in a safe manner," said Trooper Gilbert Mares, a State Patrol spokesman.

The planners also downplayed the exhibit's impact on wildlife that may wander into Vail, which already will be at high season for spring skiing.

At the close of its monthlong run, the success of The Windmill Project will be in the mind of the beholder, both for its artistic merit and for its promotion of wind energy, Fordham said.

Traffic will be counted, hotel bookings will be tabulated and visits to the Web site, artinvail.com, will be tracked to determine the return on Vail's $94,000 investment, she said.

"Because art is so individual, it's going to be very hard to measure the success of the project," Fordham said. "Each person should decide how they want to experience the windmills."

Art after dark

Drivers on I-70 will be treated to a free, other-worldly display of thousands of lights near the town's east entrance beginning later this month. If you want to see it:

• When: March 23-April 22, after sundown.

• Where: The array will be placed along the Vail Golf Course, south of I-70 on the town's east side. It will be visible from the interstate, but the South Frontage Road is a better bet.

• From Denver: Take I-70 west, exit at East Vail (Bighorn Road, exit No. 180.) Take the North Frontage Road west a little more than a mile until it crosses under the highway to the South Frontage Road, which passes next to the course.

• About the artist: Patrick Marold has been creating sculptural responses to environmental relationships for more than 10 years. Marold received a bachelor's degree in 1997 from Rhode Island School of Design. He received the Fulbright Fellowship Award as well as several other honors.

• More information: www.artinvail.com

garnerj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5421

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