Part 1- Be. Contemplate. Imagine.

September 1st, 2021 Minneapolis Sculpture Garden-Walker Art Center

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. --Albert Einstein

This week I had the opportunity to start teaching on campus again at Dunwoody. Not only was seeing students in person again so exciting and motivating, but the energy in which they move around as mostly young people was contagious. Because it was so beautiful out in our Minnesota season we decided to have class right next door at the Sculpture Garden. While I gave them their sketching and journal prompt, I was able to work on my own nature's journal assignment for the Biomimetic Design course at MCAD as part of their MA in Sustainable Design program. Being able to be sit as both an observer of the people walking around the sculpture garden who were strangers, as well as watching my students get comfortable being observers was really interesting and wonderful.

The sculpture garden is a sensory overload. The smell of flowers, the sounds of bees, cicadas, sirens, traffic, church bells, children running, couples walking and talking, and the soft breeze helped me to just slow down and breath in all this incredible life around me. My intent of this exercise was to find a space to sit quietly with my eyes closed for ten minutes. I had to just BE. Then I needed to CONTEMPLATE and attach those sounds to sight. I loved watching a couple get to know each other and flirt as they talked about the colors of the flowers they were passing. There were two little boys running through the grasses looking for the bunny they were sure they had seen. One mom was by herself and was carrying a baby in a holder, smelling the flowers and talking to her little baby about them.

There were many things I learned by just sitting there and observing not only nature, but the human connections happening with nature. I was facing the main sculpture garden, but was hidden in a long trellised area, and there were many perennials surrounding me. I turned to look at all the flowers and noticed bees going from flower to flower. I was curious about how they knew exactly what flowers would provide the nectar needed to pollinate other flowers. I was intrigued by how they knew to navigate and map our their plan. I started to question how each of these beautiful elements of nature knew how to seamlessly work together and support an ecosystem, without taking more than they needed. And I was inspired by the ease and leisure at which people were walking. It was almost as intuitively they knew to slow down and savor this moment, and not rush their journey in nature.