Perceptions

Yesterday I spent several hours at Franconia Sculpture park near Taylors Falls.  I've been there many times before.  I think the park has been there for 20 years or so.  Sometimes, before or after canoeing the Saint Croix river we would stop there and look around.  The park has no admission fee and we always saw something mind-provoking and incredible.  Crazy stuff is there at this sculpture park.  I remember going there once with a girlfriend.  We saw a giant horse.  This horse was as tall as a two story house.  Between the horse's rear legs was a fat rope dangling down.  My friend walked toward that rope. "Don't pull that rope!" I yelled at her.  I don't know but every fiber of my being was pretty sure it is not a good idea to pull on a rope dangling between a giant horses rear legs.  Did she listen?  No.  She pulled the rope.  Two previously unnoticed wings (was I that focused on the rope?) lifted up from the sides of the horse changing it from a regular giant horse to a Pegasus. I admit I was wrong about the rope. The horse is gone now and they have new stuff there.  They had a teeter totter that people could actually use.  One end of the teeter totter was out in the open air and the other end was inside a small black building with black curtains covering the openings.  So as you teeter-tottered with your partner, you could not actually see who was on the other end.  So if you were partnering with an imaginative friend (like one who would pull the rope on a horse) you might end up with a crazy experience.  

Like this colorful mirrored wall.  Maybe you can see the reflection of my green coat near the center.  I tried to get into as many mirror blocks as possible.

Like a lot of stuff there, I don't really know what it is but it is big!

Franconia sculpture park is a mind-bending kind of place.  You walk around and see so many strange things you don't even remember what normal was.  Did I see 3 people sitting in the snow by that house?  Yes, I guess I did.  Three people sculptures that is.

This sculpture is in the "Iron Garden."  Everything in the Iron Garden is made out of iron including this sculpture.  From the front it looks like a mirror.  From behind two sinewy human legs wearing army boots appear to struggle to keep this mirror moving forward.

And this plush chair, coffee table and television set?  All made out of iron.  Wow! That had to be a gigantic mold for these items.  How did they even move them?  How many pints of hot molten iron does it take for one plush chair?

This sculpture has deer or maybe elk in it but also wolves and also birds of prey.  Depending on where you stand and how close you get, the images change from one to another.  Each sculpture has a little information about the artist and a description of the work but I like to figure it out for myself before I read the description.  The park has a residence for the art interns.  Some of the funding comes from the Franconia Sculpture Park supporters, the National Endowment for the Arts, the State of Minnesota Legacy Fund, regional art boards and private sponsorships.  You can learn more about it at Franconia.org