GRAND JUNCTION — “Wooshie” has found a permanent home.

But there’s still time to view the colorful steel and fiberglass fish before it moves from its Art on the Corner location at Sixth and Main to its new home at the Lincoln Park Moyer Pool in April.

The Art on the Corner People’s Choice Award winner, which was created by Fruita artist Terry Burnett, was purchased for $12,500 by the Grand Junction Commission on Arts and Culture specifically for the city pool.

Burnett’s sculptures start out as a doodle in a sketch pad.

“I draw it out, and then I think it needs to be three-dimensional,” Burnett said.

He made his last big sculpture 15 years ago — that one sits in a buddy’s yard in Dallas. But he’s already at work on his next piece.

“Terry’s working on a big, impressive butterfly for the next exhibit,” said Allison Sarmo of the Art on the Corner committee — a group of artists, businessmen and community members appointed by the Downtown Partnership.

“We’ve selected the 30 new pieces, and his butterfly is one of them.”

Art on the Corner sculptures for 2007 will be removed May 3 and replaced May 10, with 30 new pieces that will be exhibited for a year.

The four artworks purchased by the Downtown Development Authority and Art on the Corner will become part of the city’s permanent collection and will probably remain on Main Street’s sidewalk art gallery, Sarmo said.

Those pieces include a marble sculpture titled “At the Park,” a welded steel piece titled “Leaf Angel,” a bronze sculpture called “Horse and Rider” and “Volume Text,” a cast and fabricated manganese bronze and aluminum piece.

While the city’s permanent exhibit is expanding, “we always envision having a rotating exhibit,” Sarmo said. “You want to bring in new work. That keeps it interesting and exciting for people.”

Having a rotating art exhibit also “showcases the changing trend in artwork because things do change,” Sarmo said.

Artists lend the works to the city for a year. Ten Art on the Corner pieces were purchased from the 2006 exhibit — five by the Downtown Development Authority, and five by private collectors.

There are approximately 100 Art on the Corner pieces in the downtown area — 80 on Main Street — and another 10 pieces throughout Grand Junction.

“The remodel on Seventh Street has opened up another option for exhibition,” Sarmo said. “When Colorado Avenue is done, that’ll open up a huge space.”

Reach Sharon Sullivan at ssullivan@gjfreepress.com.