When was the last time you chose your own adventure? Well now is the perfect time!
For example, this next Saturday you could roll out of bed, sprint for the 10:14 NJT to Trenton, NJ (Hamilton Stop) and visit to the Grounds For Sculpture in the “arts and culture district” of Jersey. (Warning: you will have crossed-cool and leaving the Jersey Shore far behind by entering this premises.)
If you disembark from the train and do not find a mondo sculpture of Man and Woman Dancing (yep, it’s based off Pierre-August Renoir’s painting!) towering above you- this is not your stop and you are in fact lost in Jersey… Good luck!
However, if there is in fact a host of static figurines gracing the edge of an asphalt parking lot, this is the ideal place to hop into a taxi for five minutes and arrive lazily at your destination within minutes.
-No really though, normally I do not condone the use of taxi’s but on this occasion I will allow it; for despite what the traveling ladies of the Red Hat Society may tell you, your destination is not “just down the road by old Dorthea’s house dear.”Rather it is close to a 45 minute brisk (I mean NYCer brisk, not Minnesotan brisk) trek from the station along sidewalk-less motorway-
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| You may touch this with care and Respect |
Now if you are too cheap to cab it and fool enough not to follow my instructions I will admit there is a certain joie de vivre in having the ability to pause and caress the colossal art pieces found along the road (sculptures from Art Along The Way, 2010) unscrutinized. (There aren’t even any friendly “Do Not Touch” signs, for who would ever walk this road and scramble onto medians to feel them?)
From Love Knot (C. Powel) to Four Amigos (G. McFann) the textures of rusted iron and brushed steel are simply materials until the human comes along and recognizes these individual cogs as art.
Regardless of your mode of transportation you will notice how the simple implementation of art throughout a degraded warehouse district and along a littered highway transforms the lay into a creative and inviting sculpture’s way
Currently within the Grounds For Sculpture is experiencing autumn.
The lotus seeds are dried out in their shells and the juniper sap has paused it’s weeping in front of the Ground’s main Gazebo. The magnolia leaves are curling in on themselves next to the Warming Hut and the tourists hover inside the Structure For Internal Conversation -perhaps contemplating the impact of a building who’s North wall is composed by a concave, Scream (Munich) while the South side is a convex Praying Siddhartha –
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| Woman with a Parasol |
City dwellers comment to each other about the difficulty of off-roading-it as they traverse gravel paths, stumble up grassy knolls and down into acorn covered mud-pits in search of the next art piece. Everyone takes in the megalithic Space of Stone (M, Abakanaowitz), and poses in front of Leucatntha (p. Grausman). They also stand transfixed as Woman with a Parasol (C. Monet) takes places continuously on a western hill…
If at any point you tire of interacting with audacious art works, pick one of the copious benches which litter the grounds to settle down on for a breather.
A word of caution to the weary: make sure you are not too still for too long else you will be rudely poked by a random child, at which point you will both start and the child will scream “this one’s real mom!” in his outdoor voice. Thus breaking your introspective revelry, but also validating your existence one must suppose….
Finally if it starts raining, (because when one is having an adventure especially if you didn’t being an umbrella and are wearing flats it always will) don’t despair. The Museum, Guest Center and Water Gardens are just as integral to observe with their ever changing exhibitions as is the view from Internal Evolution (B. Fuko). And if you have a few dollars to spare and did not bring beans and rice as your journey fare Rats restaurant though pricey is supposedly delectable and only serves food comprised of all local fare. (Artistic Foodies!)
Therefore dear readers just think- this is the tip of the iceberg! All you have to do is get out there and choose your own adventure!
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| Leucatntha (p. Grausman) |
intrepid trekking 
