Category Nature study

Respond to the Spirit of Art Ramble around Fairyland Pond in Concord

My goal now is to get the word out about a wonderful way to get away, though this temporary exhibit in Concord’s Hapgood Wright Town Forest won’t let you get away from the issues of climate change. I went once last week and hope to return as often as possible before the last day, November 8. I hope to post again with more photos and reflections on water, but here are quotes and links to lead you into the forest, around the pond, with art and poetry.

Applaud Playground Turtles and their Creators: Nancy Schön and Lilli Ann Killen Rosenberg

Endurance is a quality shared by the turtle sculptures in this post. Lilli Ann Roseberg’s colorful concrete turtles in Cambridge have been ridden, jumped on, snowed in, flooded over and lots more in the past three decades. Nancy Schön’s bronze Myrtle the Turtle was bound up and relocated within Boston’s Myrtle Street Playground soon after settling in last year. These sculptures endured isolation while playgrounds were closed in the spring and then cautiously reopened.

Spiral Inspired Art for Quincy Square, a Collaboration of David Phillips and Halverson Design

In earlier posts about David Phillips’ art, I noted his collaboration with Halverson Design, but here I’ll let it shape my perspective with quotes from Cambridge Public Art resources about this park that opened in 1997 near Harvard Square.

Nancy Webb’s Bronze Insects and Plants Became Treasures in Cambridge

I’ve walked through Charles Park before, (on the way to or from CambridgeSide Galleria) without noticing most of nearly forty bronze representations of insects and plants Nancy Webb created almost three decades ago. This week I came to find and focus on them, guided by the Cambridge Public Art Fact Sheet.

Animal Sculptures Greet Us along the Somerville Community Path

None of the animal sculptures in this post are very new to the Somerville Community Path, and I have visited them all before. Mainly I delayed posting about them because I wanted to learn more about each one. So far my usual online research has not led to informative links I’d like to share.

This week though, with playgrounds closed and other outdoor options limited, the bike paths beckon people of all ages. Along the path, intriguing artworks await our attention and give pleasure by their presence. Maybe this post will lead to answers from people who made these animals or know the stories of their creation.

Birds Led to Absorbing Art on the Bikeway in Arlington

A sudden flurry of bird activity in my yard this past weekend got me out on the mild Monday, February 3, to revisit three artworks in easy walking distance from each other: Extraordinary Ordinary Birds, “Colony,” and “Penny the Swan.” All three added to my appreciations of birds and art.

Art Ramble 2019 Creates Connections in Concord Town Forest

Six weeks over and just two weeks left, I took the golden opportunity of a sunlit October morning to take the trail through Hapgood-Wright Town Forest around Fairyland Pond and enjoy fourteen temporary art installations connected by the theme, Witnessing Change. I hope to go again before it ends November 1 and to convince anyone who can to go as well. Each stop on Art Ramble 2019 offers an enlightening way to engage with some aspect of the forest.

Nancy Winship Milliken, Pasture Song, plus Earth Press Project: Witness

Pasture Song at deCordova, was originally scheduled to depart this summer. What great news that it will stay another year! ….Meanwhile another time-sensitive matter has sped up my posting about Nancy Milliken’s work. That is Earth-Press Project: Witness, which calls on all of us to each offer one word that might be imprinted in an adobe block of earth for an installation at Minute-Man National Historic Park in Lincoln.

Indoor Activity Develops Outdoor Imagery for Mystic River Mural Panels

Thanks to David Fichter, one morning in August 2018 I got to visit the Mystic River Mural team at work in the Mystic Activity Center. My photos from a few moments hint at the numerous hours of planning, researching, sketching, designing, projecting, shaping, painting and much much more by teens and adults involved in the project. Outdoor explorations along the river were key features of the project, but indoor studio time was key to creating the mural panels added to the ongoing mural outdoors along Mystic Avenue.