Tara in her trainers

Tara is a shiny cheetah-like creature which was made by Mark Jalland in 2006.  It's another sculpture on the Irwell trail and was created with help from the pupils of the local primary school.

The artist says: 
‘Tara in her trainers’ came about through walking down into the park with the students to look at potential sites. I was given knowledge of this exercise track that ran around the park so we wanted to make something that worked with that. There were some stories about a sighting of a black cat some years ago which people alluded to but this is Tara, she is a cheetah, the fastest animal on four legs. That’s the idea for that and then somehow the trainers, well I don’t know, we all sometimes make the excuse that we haven’t got the right gear and maybe trainers have something to do with fashion. In this case I think the trainers are obviously going to slow her down, like a pair of old slippers and I rather like that sort of paradox that there she was just sort of lumbering along in her old trainers. So really that’s how that came about, a combination of Tara the cheetah in her trainers.'

Quote for today:
Not every woman in old slippers can manage to look like Cinderella.
- Don Marquis