I’ve been going to Meijer Gardens since it was first created many moons ago in Grand Rapids, MI.  It continues to grow and has sculpture all over the place, both inside and out on the grounds.  Recently Ai WeiWei had an exhibit there, and he left behind a permanent installation called Iron Tree.  I fell in love with Iron Tree the first time I saw it a few months ago.  Today I went to the gardens to see the Dahlia Show.  Oh my.  Who knew there were so many shapes and configurations of dahlias.  What follows are mostly dahlias, but there are also a few other pics that were snapped there.  And… now that it has been mentioned a few times in this post, a photo of Iron Tree will also be included.

In the left column you will see Dale Chihuly glass installation that is in the cafe at the gardens.  This is just one of the rainbow collection.  Gorgeous. 

The orange thing among the greenery is a pineapple growing.  For some reason I always thought pineapples grew on trees.  The horse is Nina Akamu’s creation, DaVinci’s Horse, called that because she took an almost finished drawing of the horse, completed the drawing (I think the tail and the mane were incomplete iirc) then created this beauty.  You can see the tiny people under the horse so you see it is gigantic.  I also know this horse has a twin that was sent to, I think, Italy.  Italy would make sense, but it could be a different country.  The copper beauty is the creation of Japanese master, Taichiro Ishii.  Taichiro had an entry in Grand Rapids’ Art Prize a few years ago and it captivated me.  I found the artist on facebook and used to enjoy looking at the photos of the temple restorations on the roofs with his copper mastery. 

Chinese artist Ai WeiWei’s Iron Tree.  If you don’t know this artist, you need to get to know him.