Thing 6 -- Picture This!!!

I chose this photo taken by JonU235 at the Missouri Botanical Gardens, because it combines a number of themes that I enjoy. First of all it contains the work of two of my favorite artists, Carl Milles and Dale Chihuly. Our campus has several sculptures by Milles, who taught sculpture here in the early years of Cranbrook. His “Sunglitter” is the sea nymph riding a dolphin of which a copy is here at Cranbrook, and his “Angel Musicians” are on the stone pillars in the background. The two standing figures, mid-range, are two of the figures from the “Orpheus Fountain” installation at Cranbrook Academy of Art. Dale Chihuly is one of the greatest of the modern glass artists and the reflecting pool holds a flotilla of onion-shaped glass balls that move about in the wind.

The geodesic dome in the background is reminiscent of the work of Buckminster Fuller. I grew up near the dome of the American Society of Metals in Newbury, Ohio and I have always been intrigued by the dome structure. In addition, this dome is the Climatron greenhouse of the gardens. This adds my interest in biology to the overall mix along with my former interest in science fiction. (The dome inspired the domes housing the last surviving forests of Earth on the spaceship Valley Forge in the 1972 film Silent Running.)

I originally found an exquisite shot of this scene but it was listed as “copyright, all rights reserved.” I had to look through another 300 or so photos tagged Chihuly, Missouri Botanical Gardens to find one that was licensed under “Creative Commons.”