Art and Craft

Wondering what Zen Monday was about yesterday?

It was about art. Or maybe magic.

New Town is a diverse arts group dedicated to bringing art to the public in myriad media and venues. This past weekend they presented On the Trail Of: A Half Mile of Al Fresco Installations, Sculptures and Performances, funded by grants from Pasadena Art Alliance, the Pasadena Arts & Culture Commission and the City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Division.

The photo above shows part of Stomata/Stigmata by Karen Bonfigli & Andreas Hessing. The two artists hung about 100 terra cotta pots in Oak Grove Park. I've never spent much time at Oak Grove Park because that's where they play frisbee golf, and Boz tends to like frisbees a little too much. But on Saturday the old oak grove was alive with art, frisbees and something more. The pots seemed to have been hung by elves instead of humans, making the grove even more magical than it already is.

From each pot hung a little cord with a tag, and at the end of the cord, a tempting ring. My intrepid friend Linda took hold of one of those rings and pulled. At the other end of the cord was something we hadn't noticed. A cork.

The artists describe their work as "an abstracted version of 'stomata,' the pores on the surface of a leaf responsible for gas exchanges and transpiration." Their purpose, they go on to say, is "to make obvious why it is cooler under the shade of a tree and provide some entertainment and respite for the audience." They provided more. They cast a spell.

You may have guessed that yesterday's work was more on the order of performance art. Joseph Ravens and Taisha Paggett entitled their work I think that I shall Never See... But you shall. Tomorrow.

More photos on Overdog.