How About a Bit of Culture? The Frederick Meijer Gardens

[YSSMAN]

So I had been dreading this trip all week, one in which I had to attend a 'cultural event' for my Humanities 202 class at AQ for my final, and of all the options I had, I picked the Gardens. For $9 you go in, you walk around, and I was almost certain I was going to be wasting my money... Particularly after the day that we had in Michigan yesterday...

Anyway, much to my surprise, the weather was beautiful, the place was pretty quiet for the most part, and I got to wonder around for about an hour and a half looking at a bunch of stuff... Here are some highlights:

We'll start with the biggest thing there, DaVinci's Horse... That sculpture is 24 feet tall, and God only knows how heavy it is (cast in bronze). I got to see it when it was unveiled a few years back, but getting to get up close to it without people there was cool...

(Apparently she likes horses...)

This is one of my favorites:

This one is a lot bigger than the pictures make it out to be...

(That would be me standing inside of it)

(Pump, pump the jams, pump it up while your feet are stompin'!)

I thought this would be cool to have in my backyard...

(Thats me inside of it)

Thats a good shot of the gardens there...

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So overall, everything turned out to be pretty cool. You can't complain with mid 60 degree weather, a light breeze, and plenty of sunshine... It was a good excuse to spend my afternoon outside...

 

[Danny]

Looks like a good day.

I like the Henry Moore sculpture park over here.

 

[Appie]

Looks nice Yssman. That bronze horse is quite big you know.

 

[YSSMAN]

Yeah, every time I see it I find it quite hard to believe the scale and the amount of work that had to go into building it. One of my elementary teachers was on the board that brought the sculpture to Grand Rapids, and her husband was on the 'special team' that performed the unveiling. I guess there is a far-greater amount of logistics involved in the removal of a cover than most of us would think...

...Either way, its still really cool to see. When you drive by the park, you can usually see the tops of the different sculptures. DaVinci's horse is further back and kinda in a bit of a valley, so you can't see it, but the big red one, and the silver one that I took photos of are pretty visible on a clear day. Of course, when the leaves fill the rest of the way in, they'll be a bit harder to spot.

Its worth the trip to Grand Rapids to see this stuff if you ever get the chance. I've always found it quite sad that so many people in town don't know, or don't take advantage of the world-class museums, galleries, and parks that we have. Its just ever so sad...

 

[Delirious]

All I see is a bunch of bronze, metal, and whatever type of alloys meshed together in some fashion that says "Look at me, I don't know what I am and neither do you. Haha".

Sorry, looks like a beautiful day, the horizon looks a lot better in this pictures than the "art" work. I mean come on...that face is the epitome of "I don't know what this is suppose to mean, but look at me anyway".

Maybe I don't have an appreciation for art that at face-value has no depth of meaning.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not bad-mouthing the pictures you took or the trip you made; the photography skill in itself that you did YSSMAN is quite well, and the REAL scenery looks amazing. It's the art itself I find...without any upfront purpose.

 

[Omnis]

Where is the Zeta platform sculpture?

 

[Keef]

I heard they were going to replace the old Epsilon sculpture with the Zeta because the Epsilon was too flimsy and fell over in a wind storm. Maybe they just haven't had time to ship the Zeta to the Gardens yet?

 

[Jay]

The Zeta is not there yet because it is too heavy!

 

[YSSMAN]

Where is the Zeta platform sculpture?

Ha ha ha...

...I think there was one called Omega-something...