Cherry on Top

Having company makes me want to show off the quirky delights and best kept secrets of the cities.  This past weekend, after we returned from a beautiful Milwaukee wedding, my parents drove over for a summer’s -almost-over visit. Topping off a busy, sweet summer with some pre-colors-changing-cooler-temps-coming-sweater-weather-wearing-pumpkin-flavored-everything family time.

The weather was sweltering, to say the least. We’re talking shorts can’t be short enough to beat this heat. Constant cool beverage in hand kind of heat. Sunglasses slip down your nose every ten seconds heat. I LOVE  this kind of heat.  I also know how this kind of heat is fleeting in our beautiful, snowy state, so I try to appreciate every second of it.

So, naturally, I took my family to the artsy gem of the cities: The Walker Art Museum’s sculpture garden in Minneapolis.

This is the largest (eleven acres) sculpture park in the country, and includes a conservatory, flower garden, and dozens of 20th century modern art sculptures. Also, it has what so many citydwellers crave: greenspace. It’s an oasis of flora amid scyscraping architecture.

I’ve wanted to check out the famed “Spoonbridge and Cherry” sculpture that juxtaposes itself with both the formal Versailles-like garden setting and the Minneapolis skyline in the background. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen designed and built this sculpture in two New England shipbuilding yards as a project for the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden in the late eighties.

Spoonbridge and Real Bridge.

The best creations came from that decade.

Hint:

I tried to capture some traditional and not-so-traditional angles and compositions of the Spoonbridge.  I most definitely wanted to get close enough to feel the fountain’s spray in hopes of a cool down, but it. is. HUGE. And in a pond. Plus, there were segway tours happening simultaneously.  Makes climbing up the artwork impossible.

Good art makes you want to jump in, and participate. To eat the cherry on top. This sculpture captivates me.

We meandered throughout the rest of the garden, my dad and I taking pictures, and Huckleberry curling up under a shady park bench whenever possible.

Tip: no need to spend more than one minute in the greenhouse when it’s 95 degrees outside.

I most definitely recommend spending an hour or two here with family or friends; you can bring a picnic or cross the artsy bridge over the highway into Loring Park and visit some restaurants on your artsy afternoon.  We went to {of course} the French Meadow for brunch.

Photo Credit: Scott Rezin. He rocks at beautiful composition. And he takes the photos for my mom’s incredible glass art business {Rezin Studios}.

Optical Illusion/ Photobomb combo.

Parking only costs $3.50, admission is free, and they’re open to the public daily.  Also! Mini-golfers out there: to commemorate their 25th year of existence, the garden has an artist-designed mini-golf course. Talk about participation-art.

Having taken art history classes in college, I was able to appreciate the elements in the sculptures. Angles, colors, spaces and voids, deconstructions. I find it easier to appreciate classical and impressionistic forms in art, but this interaction was a lovely way to spend a summer’s afternoon.

The guys taking a break from appreciating art and the blazing sunshine.

Enjoy the last few days of summer!

xoxo