This year’s CODAsummit presenter and CODAaward-winning artist Brad Oldham has, together with collaborator Christy Coltrin, transformed Oklahoma City’s OAK development with two monumental public artworks: Cloud Trees and Cloud Puncher. Completed in 2024, the paired projects bring the Oklahoma sky into the heart of the city—one through a grove of mirrored stainless-steel trees in Heartwood Park, the other through a bronze cowboy roping a drifting cloud from the deck of the Lively Hotel.
At the new OAK development in Oklahoma City, public art is central to its identity. Two major works by husband-and-wife artist team Brad Oldham and Christy Coltrin anchor the site: Cloud Trees and Cloud Puncher. Together, they bring the vast Oklahoma sky down to street level while creating a narrative that connects the district’s hotel, park, and gathering spaces.
Two works, one story
Cloud Trees, installed in Heartwood Park, is a grove of stainless-steel sculptures with mirrored “cloud” canopies. These canopies shift with the light, reflecting both the weather above and the people who walk underneath. The trees introduce a sense of wonder to the central green, creating shade and spectacle in equal measure.
Nearby, on the second-floor pool deck of the Lively Hotel, stands Cloud Puncher: a bronze cowboy, twice life-size, leaning back with rope in hand as he lassos a 17-foot stainless steel cloud. The figure, balanced on a concrete plinth, appears to pull a stray cloud back toward the Cloud Trees below. At over 30 feet tall and 50 feet long, the installation transforms an everyday hotel terrace into a stage for an epic scene.
Why they were created
Developer Ryan McNeill committed $2 million to public art at OAK, recognizing its role in building a sense of place. Oldham and Coltrin were brought on to design works that would define the community and resonate with Oklahoma City’s character.
Cloud Trees came first, inspired by the endless Oklahoma sky. But as the concept evolved, the artists saw that the grove needed a human counterpart—someone to engage with the drifting clouds. Coltrin sketched the cowboy, intentionally leaving the face blank so that anyone could imagine themselves in the role. The figure embodies Oklahoma’s reputation for grit and determination, while also bringing humor and accessibility to the story.
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How they were made
The projects demanded careful technical planning. The mirrored canopies of Cloud Trees were fabricated in stainless steel and polished to a high shine. Each canopy is supported by a steel trunk and anchored in reinforced foundations to withstand Oklahoma’s wind while maintaining its light, floating appearance.
For Cloud Puncher, Coltrin first refined the cowboy’s stance to capture tension and movement in the body. Oldham then sculpted the form in clay before casting it in bronze using the lost-wax process. The rope extends to the suspended stainless-steel cloud, built around a structural armature that keeps it both strong and visually weightless. Coordination with engineers and the hotel’s construction team ensured that the sculpture integrated seamlessly with the architecture and met safety standards for wind, load, and durability.
A landmark for OAK
Installed in 2024, Cloud Trees and Cloud Puncher now work in tandem to define OAK’s identity. The trees ground the park with reflection and play, while the cowboy tethers imagination to the built environment. For residents and visitors, the works transform ordinary spaces into places of story and connection—an example of how public art can shape not only a landscape, but the way people experience it.
Come see Brad present at CODAsummit taking place September 24–26, 2025, in Washington, D.C.
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