A Visit to Queen Califia's Magical Circle, Niki de Saint Phalle's Sculpture Garden - 2008-01-03 01:44:00
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These are actually photos taken back in October, but hey, the blog was in hibernation then. Plus I'm only just getting around to formatting and Flickring them. I'd read about this sculpture garden a long time ago and finally decided that it was time for Jon and I to make a photo safari one weekend. Because we're both pretty much addicted to our computer surfing/games it takes a while to uproot ourselves and get into the California sun. In fact I'm wondering if Jon'll even manage to finish formatting his backlog of photos - but I still have my Ireland and London shots to do too, so it's not like I'm winning that contest!
The garden is located in Kit Carson Park in Escondido, California. I'd looked it up on the map and found it was only a short drive from our apartment. But then finding the garden
within the park was another matter. We're big on trying to find things ourselves, but then there really wasn't anyone to ask. After we'd driven around some time we finally saw a sign and a gravel road near a parking lot. If you didn't have an idea of what you were looking for you might have a hard time finding the place - you can only see some of the taller sculptures above the trees if you look carefully from a distance. The surrounding trees and shrubs have grown up larger than the
photo on the garden's website.
The sculptures were designed by Niki de Saint Phalle, who also has
some sculptures in Balboa Park in San Diego that I'd been walking past for all the years I've lived here, not knowing that there were so many other works by the same artist nearby. Or at least I didn't know until I read about Queen Califia's Magical Circle online - it's so nice to be able to research things so quickly. The central sculpture has a female figure holding a bird - that would be Queen Califia. The rest of the sculptures are "totems" - but if you're interested I'd urge you to read more on the
website. And to see all my photos I've put them into a
Flickr set: Queen Califia's Magical Circle. I'm not a fan of all of de Saint Phalle's works, I have to admit - there are many of her sculptures that I'm not terribly attracted to. But the outdoor sculptures in this garden, with the multicolored glass and the mirrors reflecting everything and the natural stones - well, there's a lot of color and texture here that appeals to me. And she certainly was an interesting person - which leads me to more linkage...
Other Links to Visit:
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Escondido website
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Queen Califia's Magical Circle website
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Niki De Saint Phalle official website - the video of her tarot garden is especially interesting
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Niki de Saint Phalle's wikipedia entry
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Reason and Rhyme blog: nice entry about the artist Niki de Saint Phalle
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Niki de Saint Phalle - where to find her art in San Diego
And randomly, Niki de Saint Phalle worked with and later married
Jean Tinguely, who I only knew of through his work
"Homage to New York," which I remember from an art history class simply because it's such a great story.
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