Love the juxtaposition of natural & industrial. Golden leaves & rusty grids.

I love the “curtain” of rusty gears that hangs on my back porch.
And it looked even cooler with this morning’s clouded sunrise!

Clouded skies. Rusty pulley. Climbing mandevilla vine.
The perfect silhouette combination on my back porch.

My friends Gerry & Rosene not only have a wonderful garden… but they also have some wonderful collections. And, we have very similar tastes. When we’re together at a flea market it’s a race to see who can sang that cool piece of rust the fastest!!! Luckily there’s always plenty of rust to go around!!! Well here’s one of their collections hanging on a long arbor with climbing hydrangea plants. Beautiful.

One of the highlights of spending the Fourth of July in downstate Illinois is the charming “Norman Rockwell” quality of it all. Including corn dogs, lemon shake-ups, flea markets and vintage car shows. I’m not so much into the old cars… but I am REALLY into the beautiful colors and rusted patina on this beauty from 1939!!! Seventy-six years of rust… beautiful!!!

It was an early morning Evanston artist trade… a stamped cake plate stand for some rusty spirals. I already had a collection started, so I was thrilled to get more!!! They’re now in my dining room “growing” in the corner behind the radiator!

Thank you Joanie Drizin of Girly Steel for making my “curl collection” grow!!!

A half hour until we “officially” open…
and I’ve already made my first artist trade!!!
One less cake plate & more rusty metal coming home!!!
Thank you Joanie from Girly Steel.

So I stepped out onto my back porch again today. Still frozen.
But I was struck with the beauty of the icicles & shadows as they played across the brick wall. While I was a bit confused by the frozen waterfall covering a patch of brick wall?! How did THAT get there???

And what was making all of the cool shadows on the wall, you may ask?
My favorite curtain of rusty metal things, cogs & cowbells! Welcome to my back porch!

Next to the Casket Arts Building, there’s a little sculpture yard… with a big tube with a five!
And you know how I love rust! Apparently it’s somehow connected to the folks from the Franconia Sculpture Park. Remember that really cool park that I showed you all last May when I was up in Minneapolis for the St. Croix Pottery Tour?

And while I loved the sculpture from the front… nice & crusty & rusty!
But it was even cooler from the inside. I love the way the sun makes another 5 inside.

While driving the official Pottery Tour route, you’ll pass this great sculpture park on the side of the road between Conne & Guillermo’s studios. I’ve driven past it many times, but this year we finally decided to stop. We had pretty much “closed out” the Tour at Guillermo’s after playing with Delores Fortuna. The weather was great, the sun was slowly setting and we decided to take in even more art. So we stopped off at the Franconia Sculpture Park.

Of course, some of it is better than others. I’ve tried to capture some of my favorites. Trust me, there are a LOT more pieces out there. But my thought is that just because you throw a bunch of stuff together, and weld it in place, doesn’t necessarily make it “ART.” Some times I wonder if I just don’t get it?! If there’s some  concept or message that I’m missing.But I know what I like… and these are a few of them.

This one is actually a boat filled with the large wooden balls. I was especially drawn to the textures & woodgrain of the balls… especially how they’re cracking and the way the shadows played against them.

Then there was this crazy playhouse. Yes, they encourage you to go up inside it. Stairs, slides, swings… and a LOT of colorful pieces all welded together. Kind of made me think of a whimsical take on an post-apocalyptic shelter. Enter Mad Max.

This one was pretty cool. It just looked like clear acrylic triangles arranged in the mulch bed. But as the sun continued to set, the prismatic surface of the pieces started to glow in a rainbow of colors.

I think this one was my favorite of them all… a great metal contraption of a Fibonacci Spiral. Not so bad that it’s all rusty either!!!

Oh… what to do with a bunch of logs???…

I loved the silhouette of this contraption. Again, they encouraged you to climb up inside of it. But it was really the strong silhouette and the really cool dot of blue glass glowing in the top center.

And speaking of rusty metal… another favorite. Basically it’s rebar & wire mesh.

I also loved this one – a combination of weathered wooden crates and classical columns. The balance and precariousness of it was pretty cool.

One last one on the horizon as we were leaving. It was a lot of “art” today – what with the Pottery Tour, Continental Clay, Northern Clay Center and now Franconia Sculpture Park!!!

For more information about Franconia Sculpture Park, click here for their website.