Kaleidoscope View at McKee
McKee Gardens
I had a hard time deciding which event to blog about this week as here in Flroida with the family we’ve been doing so much. We went to the wonderful Brevard Zoo, which I could easily spend pages on writing and showing off photos about, and then we went to Merritt Island and the National Wildlife refuge there and saw dozens of species of birds and I got some great bird images plus a rather cool shot of an alligator.
In the end though, the family went just yesterday to McKee Gardens right here in Vero Beach. We love it there; Theo loves the children’s play area plus he’s very interested in the various plants and particularly trees. The rest of us just marvel at the peacefulness and beauty that is a large oasis of tropical plants and art – because McKee always has some sort of public art exhibit going on. This year it was “stick figure” birds that were huge, like 20 feet (over 6 meters) high. But they also have more permanent displays like the kaleidoscope one in the image this week – a four cylinder set of tubes aimed down at some tropical plants growing on a stump, and depending on which scope you look through, the view changes. An amazing piece of art, accessible to all.
I love art in public spaces, and when coupled with the beautiful flowers and trees McKee has selected, and interspersed with water elemnts like ponds and fountains, well, that’s living art isn’t it, and the height of artistic expression.
Gardeners understand this. They work at developing their own little artistic space – spaces of beauty and rest.
We need more of that in this world. I’m glad places like McKee exist.
