New sculpture revealed in Acacia Park has deeper meaning

The idea started with a painting: an oddly proportioned duck that Bill Mahaffey’s son, Alan, painted when he was 6 years old.

“It looks like it’s both a 6-year-old’s work and a 30-something-year-old’s artistic work,” Bill Mahaffey told KRDO NewsChannel 13.

Bill saw similarities between that duck and his son, whom he describes as artistic and emotional. Alan struggled to find his place as a child, but by age 20 finally seemed to have accepted his unique spirit, Bill said. A short time after taking a new job, Alan was killed.

“He was just walking home,” Bill said. “Walking across the street and a driver going about 80 miles per hour down Academy just got him.”

Alan’s spirit and painting is the idea behind a new sculpture in downtown Colorado Springs. “Alan’s Odd Duck” was revealed to a crowd of about 100 people Wednesday night.

The project was brought to fruition by the Smokebrush Foundation and Concrete Couch. Students from the Community Prep School built each tile and the shape of the duck.

“Sometimes it’s the odd ducks who turn out to be the most beautiful swan,” said Kat Tudor, creative director of the Smokebrush Foundation. “We walk a little different, we quack a little different. We go our own way.”

Each tile on the sculpture represents an aspect of life as created by a student.

“For one kid it’s volleyball, there’s athletics, there’s pets and animals,” Bill said. “It’s what these young people wanted to put on that represents life. Not death, but the life that they’re living.”

The hope is that passersby will see the odd duck in downtown Colorado Springs and be reminded that being unique is a wonderful thing.