Art Art Art Art Art Art

Jean Blackburn's art at the DeCordova's Annual was the highlight for me. That and the swirling wood panelled installation by Nadya Volicer. The Annual is a collection of contemporary work by New England artists, culled to highlight a variety of mediums and gender/ethnic diversity. Honestly, it was a disappoinment compared to last year over all, but finding even just one artist to enjoy still makes it worthwhile. What I loved about Blackburn's work is how she approaches everything around her as a possible work of art. She redesigns the familiar to make it more beautiful. The idea of redesigning your surroundings to make it more of an art/design-centric personalized world is most fabulous, I have to say. For instance, in one piece, she took a run of the mill door, of the kind each of us looks at every day in our homes, and she carved this fantastic swirling design in it, which unearthed and showcased the different layers of wood construction within the door. The layers made the design even more fabulous. Voila! Run of the mill door now very cool piece of functional art.

Although, most of the rest of the work indoors was a wash, the art in the sculpture garden is always invigorating. There's nothing better than running around enormous green fields being dwarfed by gargantuan art in some areas and surprised by hidden art in others. Generally, I prefer the outdoor art that seems to take nature one step further. Appearing as if it could've been a part of nature- if nature was a little more perfect and followed stricter design rules.