Meet the artist who’s selling 7-foot palm trees at the Super Bowl

Louis Albin trims palm trees for a living. He’s also an artist, and at the intersection of those two things lies his true passion -- solar powered light-up palm trees.

Albin, 70, spent Wednesday afternoon in the thick of Super Bowl fan central in downtown Phoenix, wheeling around one of his creations -- a seven-foot tall palm tree made out of copper, high-grade acrylic and common drain pipe. To commemorate this weekend’s event, he used blue and red acrylic for the “leaves” and tied a Patriots balloon to the top.

“Today I’m a Patriots fan,” he said, explaining that he’d be switching the acrylic for Thursday to blue and green. “Tomorrow I’ll root for the Seahawks.”

Albin says it takes a full day to make one of his palm trees and he’s made hundreds of them over the years. Prices for one tree start at $400, depending on how advanced the design is.

“Some have speakers in them,” he says. “I can also make them voice activated or put surveillance cameras in them.”

As for why Albin is wheeling a giant, mixed-media palm tree around Phoenix, the artist admits that it’s partially to drum up business. But his main motivation is pure.

“I’m a fan,” he said. “I like football and I wanted to be a part of this experience.”