Morikami Museum & Japanese Gardens, Southern Florida July 10, 2013

My Aunt Mai and I had planned to see the Boca Art Center's Florida Juried Art show, but when we got to the museum it was closed for repair - instead she took me to the Morikami Garden in nearby Delray Beach - what serendipity!

"Wood Be: Kindred Spirits" was on exhibit, as were the ongoing Tanabata events, neither of which had I ever heard.  The Robert J Brokup Kokeshi doll collection was beautiful, with a variety of very simple wood-turned forms, some of which were long and sylph like, some Botero- like. Many had a wind-swept sense of  movement.

Here are some of my favorites:

The garden walk takes about an hour, everything just exactly perfect. It would be a perfect place for lazy  pleine-aire painters since so much of the composition is already done and edited:)

I don't know what it is with me and heart-shaped trees lately, but they seem to be everywhere.

Here's an open heart:

... a full heart:

and for the oblivious-at-heart, a literal heart:

which, incidentally, was next to a sign that said, "Thank you for not carving on the bamboo trees."  Sigh.

Here you can listen to the sounds of the bamboo stalks moving against each other in the wind - some sounds are creaky, some are squeaky. 

The Kokeshi exhibit runs through September 15, 2013.