The Nature of Art - Brookgreen Gardens

Remember a while back when we talked about "interconnectedness?"  Well, the more we have explored the works of various artists, the more we have come to realize how closely woven their works are with those of others; of our own lives - even when we have no idea about it.  As I mentioned earlier, I have looked at
some of these sculptures and thought how very new and modern they were - only to learn that they were
completed in the 1920s or early 1900s.    Take, for example, the exquisite, fresh, mood evoking statue to the right by Sally Farnham.  It was sculpted in

The End of the Day - Sally James Farnham

Mares of Diomedes - Gutzon Borglum

1919!!!!!!!  Or the powerful, action packed bronze of the horses on the left.  It looks like it was just finished but the amazing work - sculpted by the man who carved out one of our nations most amazing treasures - Mount Rushmore - was completed in 1904!!!  And, yet another work that seems to me to be 'brand new' is the beautiful depiction of

Boy and Squirrel - Walter Hancock

interaction between youthful humans and animals by Walter Hancock on the right which he finished in 1928!!.  Wow!  By the way - we mentioned Mr. Borglum earlier.  Did you know that he started the enormous Confederate Memorial sculpture on the side of Stone Mountain in Georgia?  Yep, but he died before finishing it.  The final work was done by - you guessed it - Walter Hancock!!  But you can never get too complacent in trying to guess about the origin of these incredible art works, one of my favorites was cast by a wonderful lady who happens to be almost exactly my age - Sandy Scott.  The

Eat More Beef - Sandy Scott

whimsical title of the statue below brings to mind a contemporary advertising line (remember 'Eat Mor Chiken') but Ms. Scott's big fellow was completed in 1973!!  In thinking about all these marvelous masters, the message they all seem to be sending in a direct and powerful way is that we need to be ever mindful of the beauty and majesty of the creatures and plants on our planet and that we all have

Riders of the Dawn - Adolph Weinman

a huge stewardship responsibility to carry out.  In fact, the title of a book about Sandy Scott sort of tells it all ... "Spirit of the Wild Things."  Oh yes, I forgot to mention something.  I spoke briefly about Ms. Sally Farnham above.  She lived a long, full life and died in April of 1943 - just about the time some of the folks I have talked a lot about in these posts (ahem!) were entering the world!!!  Oh, if any of you ladies want to find out about someone who should be one of your true heroes, read about Ms. Farnahm.  Her contributions to the expanded role of women in our country are incalculable!!!   Y'know - I just realized that I have done an injustice to the folks at Brookgreen Gardens.  I have gone on and on about the sculpture but I have totally failed to mention how much care is taken to place each work in a location, position and environment - and - proximity to other works - that give the viewer the greatest opportunity to experience the piece with as much sensory and emotional impact as you can get.  The folks responsible for these arrangements are amazing artists in their own right and we deeply appreciate their skill and caring.  It's really hard to put into words how viewing these masterpieces affects you.  There are those that fill you with energy and excitement - pushing you to 'do something - now!!!'  Or they might give you that warm tickle inside your chest that can only be brought on by frolicking young animals.  But still others have the power to cause you to

The End of the Trail - James Earl Fraser

glimpse an overwhelming feeling of desolation, fatigue and hopelessness.  One that does that to me is the classic by James Fraser that I imagine just about everyone in our country has seen at one time or another.  I think this statue was outside during the early years of Brookgreen Gardens but

African Elephant Robert H. Rockwell

now it is safely inside in a beautiful gallery.  Another one of the early residents of Brookgreen is this mighty pachyderm that is also one of those that
evokes images of wildest Africa - with trumpeting, dust throwing and stamping.  Amazing.  Another of the energetic sculptures that seemed to me to be very young - but surprised me - was the one to the left that is actually part of a group of horses.  It was completed by Mr. MacMonnies in ... 1898!!!! ... and placed in to Brookgreen in 1934!!!  Imagine - one of the earliest!!.  By the way - you might be interested to know that the sculptor used wild mustangs as the subject for this work - gently urging them into their poses by the use of ropes and springs.  (PETA wasn't around then, huh?)  All of the extraordinary works we have looked at today really makes us want to get back down to the beach so we can re-visit Brookgreen to find all of the pieces we missed.  But, before we can do that - we still have a lot of sculptures to look at here!!!  We'll be back with more from Murrell's Inlet shortly and we'll continue to try to better identify the sculptures.  I realize there are

Reaching - EvAngelos William Frudakis

several really unique ones that are not properly identified and I apologize for that.  What we plan to do is continue working on the photos and, where I can, I'll go back to older posts to correct or add information as needed.  If you have a real interest you might want to look back at them - or - write to us and we'll try to give you more information. See ya.