This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 5:01 pm and is filed under Kinetic Sculpture, Laudenslager, Jeffery, Moto Ohtake, Sculpture, Troy Pillow. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
Here at A New Leaf Gallery, we find ourselves fortunate to be located at Cornerstone Sonoma. Chosen as one of the 100 Gardens to See Before You Die, Cornerstone features 22 installations created by renowned landscape designers. The gardens and the sculptures within them demonstrate the seamless integration of art and nature. Both owe their beauty to the elements and in some cases, to the wind in particular.
One especially intriguing garden is the work of San Francisco designer John Greenlee. Mediterranean Meadow consists entirely of undulating hills and valleys blanketed in tall grasses, native wildflowers and perennials. John conceptualized the garden as a nod to Sonoma’s traditional grasslands. Where grapevines now march acre upon acre across the rolling hills, cattle and sheep used to graze by the thousands.
Stepping into the meadow, a path paved with low grass winds in and out, up and down through waving stems of green and gray. The visitor’s pace slows as the whisper of grasses, a blinding blue sky, and tiny explosions of wildflower color mesmerize the senses. Birdsong pierces poignantly through the wind’s constant whistle and time slows to a crawl.
Suddenly, a glimpse of a dancing kinetic sculpture beckons. Around a bend in the path, Moto Ohtake’s Stellar Motion glints and spins above bobbing seed heads. Continuing down a dell and parting magenta stems alive with movement like ocean waves, Troy Pillow’s colorful Orion wind sculpture sails into view, planted firmly in the ground like the grasses surrounding it.
Voyaging further, the masts of Jeffery Laudenslager’s magnificent Hokusai (named in homage to Hiroshige’s wave woodblock print) rise and fall in a meditative spiral to complete the journey.
As the wind sculpts the hills and shapes the undulating movement of the meadow, it also works its magic on the kinetic sculptures punctuating the landscape in a delightful interplay of man-made and natural elements.
