For my Birthday in July my husband surprised me with a trip to the Storm King Art Center in the Hudson Valley in New York State. It had been on my bucket list for a long time and gosh it was soooo cool!

There is something so beautiful to walk around in Nature and look at gigantic art which appears different from all kinds of angles and in different lights and seasons.

Storm King was founded and opened in the 60s and it is pretty massive.

“Storm King Art Center’s dramatic landscape includes farmed fields, natural woodlands, lawns, native grasses, wetlands, and water.”

Don’t be fooled by the cloudy and cool looking pictures – it was an extremely hot and humid day .

But it didn’t deter us from hiking around and enjoying everything.

Where every you turn around there is something to see- sometimes very colorful and prominent

Menashe Kadishman’s Suspended was one of my favorites – all you wonder is “how is this even balancing and holding up” . It was fun to see people interacting with the sculpture and walk underneath.

“Tomio Miki, who exhibited among a group of avant-garde, politically active artists in Tokyo in the late 1950s and early 1960s, settled in 1963 on the human ear as his primary sculptural subject for the next several years. He often depicted them individually, on a giant scale, as represented in the work at Storm King. Sometimes he combined ears with other elements, such as spoons or colored lights, or made series of them set in rows or in boxes. Miki spoke quixotically about his choice of the ear, saying that it originated in an “experience in a train, when, for no reason, I suddenly felt myself surrounded by hundreds of ears trying to assault me. This personal episode, however, wouldn’t be any precise answer to why I make ears. I can hardly say I chose the ear. More precisely, isn’t it that the ear chose me?”

Ursula von Rydingsvard’s For Paul—made of cedar wood

Alexander Calder , Black Flag, 1974

The museum hosted an exhibition of Mark Dion – Follies.

“The job of the artist,” he says, “is to go against the grain of dominant culture, to challenge perception and convention.”

Appropriating archaeological and other scientific methods of collecting, ordering, and exhibiting objects, Dion creates works that question the distinctions between “objective” (“rational”) scientific methods and “subjective” (“irrational”) influences.

One of my favorites- the next 3 works below by Louise Bourgeois – it is always such a treat to see her work in person.

“While typically black, Nevelson’s sculptures are occasionally white or gold; their monochromatic surfaces lend a sense of order and unity to the varied parts. Among Nevelson’s first gold-painted sculptures, Royal Tide I was included in the historic Art of Assemblage exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1961. Nevelson cited a religious resonance in the color gold, as well as a natural and spiritual connection to the sun. She was also interested in its timeless quality: “Gold has been the staple of the world for ages; it is universal.”

Sky Chapel No. 1, 1958-59

“Number Seventy-Two (The No March) is one of Louise Bourgeois’s most complex and politically charged works. This intricate sculpture—a floor work made from 1,200 individual cylindrical pieces of marble and travertine—was created in homage to a non-violent protest against the Vietnam War. Bourgeois also imbued the work with a more universal meaning, noting: “The No March also means accepting you’re almost nobody. You have to merge with thousands like you.”

Five Units Equal, 1956

Gorgeous fountain by Lynda Bengalis which resembles ocean waves lapping at the shore, slow-moving lava, or prehistoric creatures.

You can rent bikes and go out in the fields- which we should have done but we realized too late and walking in heat of 100F/38 C and in that sauna air wasn’t really our thing that day.

We made a promise to come back at one of the other , cooler seasons.

Alexander Liberman – Iliad and Adam

nearly seventy feet, Endless Column by Tal Streeter

A different view of Alexander Liberman’s Adonai -it is also in the very first picture. This sculpture was and is made out of gas storage tanks and the original sculpture deteriorated and was refabricated in 2000 after the artist had already died. I find it interesting – is it still his artwork? He knew it would deteriorate – should it been left as is?

It was such a cool way to celebrate my birthday- it is beautiful up there in NY – State anyway – so if you have never been and have a chance- go for it :)

Hope you enjoyed this outdoorsy – ArtStroll – until next time!