As we started walking around the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum several days ago I looked up the word “teliodoscope” on my iPhone to find the definition and learn how to pronounce it. The word is not in the dictionary and must be the creation of the artist who had a wonderful exhibit “Gardens of Kaleidoscopes” on display at the arb (now through September 2017).
Brightly colored painted, steel structures hold big bowls of bright-colored, perky pansies with a few other spring flowers mixed in. According to the brochure, the annuals in the bowls will change monthly and vary by season. The bowls rotate and there are kaleidoscopes mounted on each stand (different heights for different folks) so as you look through the scope and spin the bowl (and/or the scope at the same time) it creates a wonderful “teliodoscope” of colors and patterns and fantastic designs. It’s very creative and such fun to locate them throughout the arboretum.
The brochure tells us the artist, Robert Anderson, spent his early life on a farm in south-central WI. This exposure to nature and mechanics would create the foundation for his life’s work of “living sculptures’ as he calls them.
I, for one, am a fan of his work! I love color, I love kaleidoscopes, I love flowers…what a combination.
We also discovered a new permanent addition to the arboretum called Bee and Pollinator Discovery Center. The center is beautifully built and opened last fall. We learned some fascinating facts about bees and want to go back to learn more.
And, of course, we enjoyed the wonderful landscape of the arboretum with some spring flowers in bloom… and there will be a whole new look in the coming days as more flowers bloom and grow.
Loved seeing the colors and your take on them. Now I want to go to the arboretum.
I saw these kaleidoscopes for the first time last summer at
the Paine Museum in Oshkosh. I, too, am enamored with them.
I must visit the arboretum; decades have passed since I’ve been there.
I hope you can get there someday Audrey. I think you would really like it.