Where is the Light Travelling?

     “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” is a quote that has been used countless times.  I am somewhat narrow-minded in my opinion of beautiful artwork.  What some people would call art, I usually miss the meaning and would call junk.  The piece of artwork installed along 96^th Ave a couple of months ago would be in the junk category.  The huge blue ring with two little sprouts on top named “Travelling Light” cost a head scratching half a million dollars.  The City of Calgary has a policy mandating  1% of capital project budgets be allocated to art.  I just can’t understand how no one at city hall looked twice at this piece and said “hey, maybe there is something more worthwhile we can spend that money on”.  How is it that our elected officials can continue to spend taxpayer money on anything and everything that they want.  Taxes seem to increase year over year, with no end in sight.  Now I know that $500,000 for this metal loop is not what is going to make or break our City’s budget, but I think that it is just a prime example of the wasteful spending going on at City Hall.  The citizens of Calgary usually have no say about these art projects, and are only told the costs after they are installed.  I would argue that if there had of been a survey before “Travelling Light” was selected, that there would be no way that it would have ever been considered. But hey, who am I to judge right?