Art in the Gardens

Spikes and Yellow Fountain ©2012 Bo Mackison

I sit in my garden, gazing upon a beauty that cannot gaze upon itself.  And I find sufficient purpose for my day.  ~Robert Brault

Some gardens are just meant for sitting. There are nooks and crannies, places to sit and watch what goes on in a garden. One of my favorite benches is tucked in a corner of the botanical gardens in Madison. I sit there, take a few photographs, listen to the fountain waters trickle over this yellow pottery container and drip upon the pebbles, and do a little people watching, too.

Inflatable Sculpture © 2012 Bo Mackison

Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help.
  ~ May Sarton

Placed in half hidden places in Olbrich Gardens, there are several new sculptures by  Sturgeon Bay (Wisconsin) artist, Robert Anderson. He constructs large-scale sculptures out of metals and fills them with compressed air so that they expand.

Expanding Sculpture at Olbrich ©2012 Bo Mackison

Beauty is the adjustment of all parts proportionately so that one cannot add or subtract or change without impairing the harmony of the whole.
~ Leon B. Alberti

Every time I visit the gardens, the sculptures look a little different. I love this aluminum sculpture constructed of triangles. Half hidden in one of the natural gardens, it reminds me of a shiny serpent wending its way through tall grasses.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Walking (and sitting) in the area gardens is one of Bo’s daily pleasures.