Crystal Bridges: Part 3 Outdoor Art

Wonderful surprises pop up, even as you walk from the parking lot to the museum.

These huge sculptures are representations of the four seasons. The original pieces are on display inside and are maybe 12" tall.

Okie dokie, artie-choky!

This cool sculpture is called "Maelstrom." It's supposed to resemble "coils of paper, the interior of a shell, a vortex, a flower." (quote from the website)

These landscaping wagons aren't part of the display, but I thought they were artfully parked :)

Somebody planted a silver seed and grew a silver tree! It stands at the entrance of the museum, pointing the way forward.

Inside the courtyard area stands a huge spider. I avoided taking a picture from underneath because, ewww, there was even a representation of an egg sac. Double ewwww!

These large pinwheels were for sale outside the museum store.

Here's the 4th rep for one of the 4 seasons. It stands inside the courtyard also. To give you an idea how tall it is, someone standing next to it could stand under the peach.

I love this "profile picture" angle. Maybe I should use it for my Facebook profile!

This pig sculpture is placed on the Art Trail. It's one of the walking/biking trails around the museum. There's the tortoise & hare, and some other neat sculptures. This pig has eerily human eyes.

We saw this on the way out and I think it's a prop for the group who promote bat protection. It's truly a "batmobile."

More outdoor art in the next post - but it will be "art in the making."

But before you continue, I'll show you one more picture. My husband said I would regret letting him take this picture. Rarely do I post one of myself, but in the spirit of "interactive art" I decided to join in the fun!

Crystal Bridges: Part 4 Art in the Making

Crystal Bridges had a Garden Party Saturday. It was wonderful, so alive! There were small round tables set up, covered in bright cloth & tied with a ribbon around the base. There were vendors of all kinds.

 As we traveled the Art Trail, we encountered groups of musicians here & there playing a variety of styles.
 Wonderful Bluegrass...

Classical strings...

 A little bit o' country...

And this guy was accompanying a Janis Joplin-esque vocalist with this instrument crafted from a bike.

Around the rocky cavern area where the country group above was softly singing, there were artists painting on their easels. But the neat thing was clipboards, paper, paints & brushes were available for the kids to climb on the rocks, find a place to create and make their own art.

An entire section of this paved trail was set aside for chalk art. Boxes of chalk were placed here & there inviting anyone to contribute to the color.

There was a group of local art students creating a sidewalk masterpiece.

I snapped this one for my son, who has loved Garfield since he was a toddler.

We participated, too. I would've done something more elaborate but the ol' knees were too stiff from walking the trails to stay down there longer!

Crystal Bridges: Part 5 Exhibits

"The Open Road" was the featured exhibit. It's an interesting display of photographs & video collected from road trips since the 50s. It was interactive at certain points. For instance, you can tweet a photo from your own road trip & it will show up on the map & in the slide show. What a perfect exhibit for us - we love road trips!!

So let's take a walk with Pinocchio to see some of the other works of art...

Even the museum hallways are artistic. There's a whole gallery showing how it was designed and built, including a drone flyover video to give you an aerial view.

There are galleries of classic, fine paintings from colonial to early 19th century, late 19th century, early 20th century & modern. While I appreciate, and am amazed at paintings, I really love modern & mixed media art.

This is called "The Big Red Lens."

"Night Zag Wall" a assemblage of wood united by painting it all black.

This was a rectangle on the floor of hard candy. It glistened like diamonds & emeralds. People were welcome to take a piece!

This man stood there for so long, he became part of the art, I think.

This heart hangs over the cafe. See how it picks up the curve of the ceiling and reshapes it.

These next two, I'm posting for a young friend. She has a warped sense of humor & will get a kick out of it. You know who you are.... :)

This is a big silver painted blob on the floor called "Eat Meat." Here's how it's explained (quote from the website): Eat Meat, a blob-like aluminum mass, looks like frozen liquid or oozing lava. Notice how the layers stack up, creating an organic record of her process. The title, Eat Meat, corresponds to the idea of consumption.

Aaaannnd....what does this look like? Or do I just have a naughty imagination?

Look closer.

Do you see the alphabet?

The next one is called "Car Horn."  It's a statement on American consumerism. There were several pieces that were supposedly statements (criticisms) on consumerism.

I have to pause here and make a statement of my own. While I respect & appreciate that museum guards have a job to do, they always make me feel like I'm in study hall. I had my gi-normous lens on the camera (photography is allowed but no flash). It weighs 3 lbs and gets heavy, so I had it tucked against my hip with my arm wrapped around it. I got stopped 3 times by excited guards warning me "no drinks allowed!"  One of them was like it was her first bust. Booyah! I started taking a smug pleasure in showing them it was a camera lens :)

In fairness, there was one older gentleman who was friendly & loved sharing information. (not the one above though; she was surely a high school librarian in a previous life).

And that concludes our tour of Crystal Bridges. I really encourage you to visit it.

One last picture...

A trip to Bentonville, Arkansas would not be complete without a visit to the Mother Ship! We also did a quick tour of the place where it all began for WalMart.

Wedding Bouquet

Just finished processing the photos from a wedding I shot. Had to share this one; so pink & soft.

Beautiful Mornings

Here's an enhanced cellphone pic from my early morning walk with Blu2 this week. I thought I better put up something until I can get back here with a blog! The last few weeks have been exceptionally busy. Good stuff, but leaving me tired in the evenings. Will be back soon!