[By Marcia Milner-Brage in downtown Des Moines, Iowa, USA]
After
my razzle-dazzle, exhausting day at the Iowa State Fair, it was wonderful to spend the next morning at the tranquil, inspirational
Pappajohn Sculpture Park in Des Moines—the capitol of the State of Iowa. This area of downtown used to be ramshackle, but has gone through extensive urban renewal. The park is a world-class example of the community-building, life-giving force of art in public places. Thank you, John and Mary Papppajohn who contributed the 28 sculptures by 22 world-renown artists to the Des Moines Art Museum for the park that opened in 2009.
Entering from the northeast corner, I was immediately captivated by the goofy duo
Moonrise.east.january and
Moonrise.east.august, painted cast aluminum by Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone (see above). As I drew, I became increasingly endeared to the pair. Their eccentric lumpy imperfection, their undefined humanness gave me a sense of welcome and acceptance.
After standing to sketch
Moonrise, I found a park bench to do my second drawing of the morning.
Back of Snowman (white) and
Back of Snowman (black), enamel on bronze by British artist Gary Hume, are on the long north side of the park. So smooth and reflective and perfectly spherical! Elegant, yet playful. How incongruous: two snowmen—one the expected color, the other decidedly not—living through all four seasons, monuments to constancy. On this day, surrounded by green lawn, unaffected by the hot summer temperatures.
It was a weekday. Not crowded, but as the morning progressed more and more visitors came: parents pushing strollers, families posing for photos, joggers, office workers on their way to work, and a flow of Pokémon-go players, purposefully pacing, glued to their handheld devices, hardly looking up to acknowledge the art.
Now, the
Iowa State Fair is not the only thing that I look forward to visiting Des Moines for next summer. There are many more exciting sculptures with the backdrop of the city to draw here.
