Well, not really a Journal per se, but, well, just think of it as my following that old Kodak (or was is Konica?) ad about writing my diary with a camera...

Anyway, today S's mom, whom we shall call O, came over and took us (meaning mom and me) out to Grounds for Sculpture, a sculpture museum/park that is a mere 6 miles from my house, and which I am sad to say I have never visited. (We have drove past several gigantic objets d'art on I-295 with a sign indicating the existence of such a place, and my good friend DJP had visited there at least once, plus the GS sponsored trips to it.)

Grounds for Sculpture itself is right next to the Johnson Atelier, founded by John Seward Johnson, Jr. (sculptor; son of JS Johnson Sr., whose leaving of much of his liquid fortune to his third wife Barbara [aka Basia] prompted a huge scandal and bitter lawsuit between the children (JSJ Jr included) and the widow; grand son of Robert Wood Johnson I, the founder of Johnson & Johnson; cousin of Robert Wood Johnson III, the namesake of the medical school and university hospital that is part of the UMDNJ system; more on his art later). Naturally, the GfS collects many of Johnson's pieces. Johnson is most famous for his life-size cast bronze statues, and especially for a series sometimes called Beyond the Frame, installations of colored bronze statues along with landscaping that recreates scenes from Impressionist paintings.

After paying the (lower on weekdays) admission to GsF, we turned into the parking lot and directly to the right of us is a Johnson piece called Summer Thinking, portraying a young woman lying on grass while trying to jot something into her notebook. The first stop we planned to make was the Domestic Arts Building. Before we were able to go in, however, mom entered into a staring contest with a peacock.

We first went to the Water Garden which is attached to the Domestic Arts Building. The Water Garden features pieces that somehow interacts with water. For example, a piece called Footpath is actually four carved marbles set in a little waterway, as if they are stepping stones; another one incorporates water dripping down from above; and in the garden was installed many fine-mist sprays, which simultaneously create an interesting visual effect, and cools down the area significantly during a warm summer day.

After the water garden, we decided to take some lunch at the Chez Alice café inside the Domestic Arts Building. As we dined, we couldn't but help eyeing at this couple (even the waiter was caught staring). And mom finally decided to chaperone this pair of young Victorians. This is, of course, one of the Johnson pieces (including the waiter in the back). It is called The Eye of the Beholder, based on Édouard Manet's Chez le Père Lathuille.

After leaving the building, we headed on to the actual Grounds and saw plenty of modern, abstract sculptures. After a few twists and turns, we came upon a painting gentleman. The gentleman quite obviously sketches this scene before his eyes. What the painter obviously couldn't see, were the shocked expression some of his subjects put on while gossiping. It is not quite clear whether she is outraged at the invasion of privacy from the one doing the caricature, or perhaps trying to hint at the young couple to "get a room". Of course, the old man couldn't care less, and is half asleep already while trying to pretend to listen to the lady babble. Seeing that, I feel I should at least make an effort to butt in and talk to the oblivious young ones.

Okay, all made-up story aside, this scene is actually a copy of Claude Monet's Terrasse à Sainte-Adresse by Johnson, titled If It Were Time. More ironic is the statue of Monet that hides in the bushes and paints: that one is titled Copyright Violation!! Here we see clearly the humourous side of Seward Johnson, from both the exaggerated expressions on the statues which couldn't be seen from the painters' vantage points, and the implication that he is more 'original' than Monet. It also shows off Johnson's attention to detail: since it is impossible to maintain flowers to bloom for all four seasons (while it is possible to maintain green vegetation somewhat), he made the effort to recreate all the flowers in aluminum. Further evidence is the miniature sailboat he placed in the lake. By playing with the size and perspective, he makes the sailboat appears farther and bigger than it actually is.

A little later, after winding down some small footpaths, we came across this indecent scene. It is, indeed, the famous Le déjeuner sur l'herbe by Manet. And those familiar with the painting would notice that Johnson's Déjeuner Déjà Vu also feature the bathing woman in the background, the little boat, and the waterfall. Johnson's attention to detail also extended to a little bronze bird that he made, hung from the trees slightly above and behind the picnicking trio (it is just outside of the view of my camera--I was pretty much backed up against a row of trees when taking this picture, and can't go back any further; I also don't currently have an SLR available).

Johnson's humour again shows through in this piece. Walking around the three statues, we see a book (also sculpted in bronze) on the ground, open to a page with a print of the Manet painting, a play on the words "déjà vu".

Coming out of there, we saw a modern work called Hercules' Pillars, which has, unfortunately, been vandalized and a small part of it has been broken off. Walking around on the grounds, we found a place called a Warming Hut, which apparently is just a small hut with a chair inside and a fireplace. I am not quite sure what its actual function is. Right next to it is the Peacock House, where the Peafowls go roost when night falls. (I counted three males and three females today. There might have been more.) There was something that resembled a corn-maze, and at the center of it was a little plaque that indicates an artwork--which we couldn't find. It is not the corn-maze itself, since the plaque indicates that it is made of bronze. So either it has been stolen or removed for repairs.

A section of the Grounds is set up similar to an Italian Garden. On one side we see something called Nine Muses, it is nice and recursive in that it has, as a part of the entire installation itself, a miniature map of the installation with numbers indicating the muses. Unfortunately I don't remember the nine muses, never mind their order, so I can't figure out whether there's any significance to the peculiar way they are arranged.

On the other side of the Italian garden, I got in the Depression Bread Line. It is made by George Segal, who worked at the Johnson Atelier. Next time I go visit I might just bring my bucket hat and my long coat to get a better picture.

Rounding the corner from the bread line, we see Henry Moore in a Sheep Meadow by Red Grooms, a famously humourous artist. From the GfS website:

Henry Moore in a Sheep Meadow is a humorous tribute to the famed English sculptor, who preferred his sculptures (with their horizontal, organic compositions relating to land masses) placed on sites in the rolling coutours of the countryside. Some were installed outside of Moore's studio amidst herds of grazing sheep.

which should serve to illustrate the meaning of this item. Continuing, we walked pass one of Steve Tobin's Roots, bronze castings of actual tree roots. Tobin is perhaps best known for his Termite Hills, a collection of bronze castings of actual termite hills from South America.

We also walked passed a piece called Sumo, which is a bunch of large, flat stone slabs assembled in vaguely the shape of the Chinese character for big (大); the three of us all agree that it captured completely the essence of sumo.

Then we headed toward the restaurant Rats. The restaurant itself has wonderful decor on the inside. The entrace is built to look like a gypsy wagon. (No, we didn't dine there. But it looks like a wonderful place to have a function.) Rats is actually on Fairgrounds Road, and is technically outside of GfS. GfS has someone stationed around there to charge admission. Outside the restaurant, we saw this. This imitation of Gustave Caillebotte's Paris: A Rainy Day is another of Johnson's works called La Promenade.

Coming back from the direction of Rats, we saw several pieces by Dana Stewart. There were some that looked like dogs called Guard Beast; and one in particular, called That's What You Get When You Mess with a Cat. Scratched!, was a sculpture of (presumeably) a dog with cowered head with scratch marks on its snout.

Next to those we see On Poppied Hill, another one of Johnson's recreations. This is an imitation of the Monet painting, Woman with a Parasol, Madame Monet with her Son. Unfortunately, from the angle where I took the picture, the son cannot be seen. But I asure you that the son was indeed there in the sculpture. Again, due to the fact that the artist wanted flowers in the scene, he made artificial ones and stuck them all over the hill, on top of which the statues were placed. This has the additional consequence that the hill now is part of the entire sculpture, and visitors are not allowed to trespass and climb the hill.

Farther down from the hill is, hidden behind some trees, Johnson's Part of Nature a scene where a young woman washes herself next to a stream. (I don't know what the original painting is for this one.) Going a bit more we hit Sailing the Seine. This is inspired by Manet's Argenteuil. Particularly cute is the fact that behind the couple, in the water, we see a pair of bronze mandarin ducks. Near them swam several real ducks.

From there, we can walk toward Rats again, this time heading not for the gypsy-wagon front door, but for the backdoor and outdoors seating area. Only from the patio of Rats can one capture a scene like this. The Monet Bridge at Grounds for Sculpture very nicely captures the effect of Monet's most famous paintings of Waterlilies.

Behind Rats, we see a recreation of Renoir's masterpiece, Le déjeuner des canotiers. In the original painting, in the far right you can see the back of top hat. You cannot, however, see that person or any other people he was dining with. So Johnson took some liberty at that point, and inserted himself and his friends in that table. Here we see a man wearing a welding mask (Bill Barrett, another sculptor) seated next to another sculptor, Andrew Pitynski, wearing a brown hat and a moustache. To Pitynski's right is Red Grooms, the humourous artist who created "Henry Moore in the Sheep Meadow", who sits right next to a jolly J Seward Johnson himself. The title of the piece is, thus, appropriately, Were You Invited?

Lastly, we went to see what Johnson calls Pondering the Benefits of Exercise, a scene inspired by Renoir's Lunch at the Restaurant Fournaise.

The various excursions to water-rich areas meant the mosquitoes of GfS got very well fed on my account. I was glad to go indoors afterwards. The last stop was to the barnhouse-turned-museum building (the Grounds for Sculpture is sitting on what used to be New Jersey State Fair Grounds, many of the buildings there were from way back then). Inside the building were indoor kinetic sculptures by George Rickey. Rickey was trained as a painter and a teacher, but during the second World War, he got involved with engineers trying to improve aircraft weaponary, and found an interest with mechanics. Since then, he designed many kinetic sculptures that are very precisely balanced and responds visibly to changes in air currents. The museum simulates this effect by puting electric fans throughout the building that turns on and off and regular intervals.

Coming out from the museum, we saw a peahen taking care of her little peafowls (there's another one on the other side of the peahen).

The GfS is a rather wonderful place. I do plan to go back in the future.