Day Trip To Art Omi With Emily

We were both immediately drawn to it.  From across the field, it looked like a circle of purple velvet in a cement wall.   As we got closer we saw it wasn’t soft at all, but purple glass.

This experience of seeing one thing from a distance and finding it to be something very different close-up happened again and again throughout our trip to Art Omi.

And somehow that big cement box was anything but cold. We both stepped inside the purple glow and smooth wall.  The small glass box protruding from the structure was filled with books.

It was enchanting. As if we stepped into the most perfect doll house.  “I want this in my woods.” I told Emily.  It was only when I got home that I saw it called Day Trip.

I should have guessed, but it was clear after a short time walking through the 250-acre sculpture park that Emily and I have a similar sensibility about sculpture.   We enjoyed exploring the ones we could climb on, look through, and interact with.

We both were drawn to the sculptures that were made from hard materials that were made to look soft.

Like the rocks that had been painted m&m colors by Dan Colen with a hard acrylic paint that somehow looked softer than they were.  Or the Yolanda Daniels Tea Cozy made of steel and concrete.

Some sculptures we talked about easily.  What we liked or didn’t, what it evoked in us.  Others were more elusive.  And some we just liked without really knowing why.

Neither Emily nor I have a good sense of direction and had a hard time making sense of the map of the park.  So we wandered around longer than we intended and by the time we found our way back to the parking lot we were both hungry, thirsty and I had to use the bathroom.

But before we left,  we did stop to drink from Agustina Woodgates water fountain sculptures called  The Source I-IV.  There were four of them and they were constructed from coral rock (which was very beautiful close-up) and a system of underground pipes.

We did find lunch nearby in a cheese shop that also made sandwiches.  It was a sweet day of good art, spending time with a good friend, and being outside seeing something new.

I can’t say that I was inspired by anything I saw, but I have a feeling the art I saw today will work on me.  I’m just a little too tired to think too much about it right now.