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COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- Controversial artist Christo is in Colorado Springs in hopes of drumming up support for his Over The River project.

Bulgarian born Christo has spent his career creating visual works of art on an enormous scale.

Now he wants to drape fabric over the Arkansas River in Fremont County.

The sections of fabric would cover a total of 5.9 miles between Canon City and Salida.

Some say it will hurt wildlife and the environment.

But others say it will bring a huge injection of cash during a down economy.

Christo made a slide show presentation at the fine arts center this evening.

He hopes to get enough public support for the project so the federal government will let him do it.

These are artist renderings of what the over the river project will look like.

Fabric stretched over the Arkansas River will reflect sunlight and blow in the breeze.

Combined with the natural beauty of the area it will complete Christo’s vision.

"The work of art is not the fabric panels the work of art is that connection of all these elements between natural and man made elements," Christo said.

But before he can start putting up the fabric panels he must have a land use permit from the bureau of land management.

They just finished an environmental assessment of the plan and are now accepting public comment.

That’s what this event is about; getting supporters to submit their comments to the BLM.

Their study shows the greatest impact is to big horn sheep that live in the area.

Mule deer, birds and fish will also be impacted.

And the BLM estimates it will take 3 to 5 years for everything to return to normal once the fabric is taken down.

"Art is everything artists do artists do art," Christo said.

Taxpayers will not pay a dime for the project and it will be free and open to the public.

It is estimated that visitors from around the world would inject 121 million dollars into Colorado’s economy during the two weeks it would be on display and it would create 600 jobs.

"What writers do with words, what musicians do with sound artists do with the visual senses," Christo said. 

If all goes according to plan Christo hopes to have the fabric in place by August 2013.