Cedar Park Sculpture Garden

We finally had a day with sunshine!

I had my son take this picture when we were driving to school on Friday. That is a rectangular block of black clouds ahead of us. It looked pretty ominous in person.

The rain in central Texas has slacked off. It is great to see the sun. We had so much flooding in our area that the water treatment plant could not keep up with proper filtration. On October 22nd, the city of Austin put out a boil water notice. The city said the rain and flooding brought "unprecedented levels of silt" into the water supply. I have lived in the area all my life and have never witnessed a boil notice for the entire city. The grocery store lines were crazy last Monday with people buying bottled water. The stores had to put limits on the number of bottles purchased and there were warnings by the city that price gouging would not be tolerated. The boil notice is still in effect today but the local news said it might end this evening. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the sun will shine on us for at least a few more days.

Boogs and I took advantage of the beautiful day and went to the Cedar Park Sculpture Garden. We had never been there before. There are 13 sculptures and a walking path around a pond.

Boogs and I waited to read the artist's title of each sculpture until after we had taken a guess as to what the title might be. I thought Sentinel was a butterfly, Boogs thought it should be called perpetual movement. We both thought All That Jazz was something to do with music.

Tube dancers - Me - dancers, Boogs - a fight or struggle. Paths We Choose -  Boogs - which way, Me - distortion, it looked misleading to me. I love the look of the shadow of the arrow.

Joy - We both thought this would be something about dancing with all your heart because of the heart shaped cut out in the torso of the sculpture. I liked this shadow, too.

Gotcha Bird With Fish - we were pretty close on this one. We thought it should be called bird with fish. There was so much detail in this work. I think it was my favorite one.

Sundial - This one really confused us. Boogs thought is should be called Abstract, I thought is was some kind of person. Neither one of us could see it as a sundial even after we read the title of the sculpture. Nebulous: Boogs saw the sign before he guessed, I thought it was the Earth.

Cloud Kaleidoscope made us think it was someone holding a ring or a magnifying glass. I tried to line up a cloud in the center of the kaleidoscope. Surprisingly, we both got Red Bird really wrong. I thought it was a flame, Boogs thought it was about team spirit. After we read the title, the red bird was easy to see.

We were both kind of close on naming Chirp. Boogs thought it was a penguin, I thought it was a puffin. We liked the way the artist signed the work with interlaced C and Q initials.

 There is a nice path around the water.

Boogs enjoyed conquering the steep incline to reach the top of this wall. He ran up and then slid down this steep slope many times.

We enjoyed our walk. There were quite a few ducks in the water. These ducks came waddling up  when we stopped to look at them. I think they thought they might get fed.

The last sculpture we saw was called Dancer 2012 & Dancer 2014 by Jerry Daniel. From a distance, Boogs and I decided this sculpture was dancers and we were right.

The artists loan their work to the Sculpture Garden for one year. The pieces are for sale at the end of their time on display. Each year, a new group of artists get a chance to display their work. We are looking forward to coming back again to see the next set of sculptures when they are put on display.

This post is linked to:

Revisiting Umlauf Sculpture Garden

Four years ago, Boogs and I visited Umlauf Sculpture Garden. You can see the post here. This time we did some of the same activities - scavenger hunt, salt water taffy sculpture, sketching our favorite sculpture, walking the grounds, and learning more about the artwork.

 Last time we came, I created a scavenger hunt because I did not know they offered one. During this visit, we used the one provided at the visitor center.

While we were there, Boogs measured himself against a sculpture called The Diver. Boogs was 7-years-old when we went last time and he was almost the exact same size as the statue.

I thought it would be neat to see how much he has grown since we last visited.

 

Look how much his arm has grown.

Boogs' foot is not that much bigger. I thought it would have grown more than that in four years.

 

 Taffy "sculpture" of The Diver.

Boogs still liked the Icarus sculpture. Last time he said it was his favorite sculpture in the garden. This time, he decided he liked The Diver best.

It was a beautiful afternoon to wander around the shady grounds of Umlauf Sculpture Garden.

It is hard to believe that Boogs is now a great big 11-year-old. Sometimes I wish I could turn back or slow down time. But then I realize what an amazing, thoughtful, and fun young man Boogs is becoming and I look forward to the future and all the changes that come with it as I watch him grow into a man.

This post is linked to Country Kids from Coombe Mill.