The new plan is that once a “weekend” (my days off being Thurs/ Friday) we will do A Thing. Get out of the house, do something fun, something different, no matter what. After a rocky start at the beginning of the summer we’ve finally begun exploring our “new” environs.

This week’s outing was to Storm King Mountain’s Art Center. I knew it was a huge sculpture garden (500+ acres huge), but not how very very abstract it is.

I have come across this problem before, where abstract art makes me feel rather… unsophisticated. This, for example, is called Iliad:

Why, yes, the fall of Troy is exactly what that brought to mind? hmmm…

But then there’s “Frog Legs”

Which, while visually interesting, left me tilting my head like a dog that doesn’t quite understand what you’re trying to tell it. One suspects the artist did this on purpose. I can never quite shake the feeling that we’re playing a surprise game of “The Emperor’s New Clothes” with this sort of thing.

The scope of the place is amazing, and if anything made the massive sculptures pale in comparison to their even more impressive surroundings, which is built in as a feature, not a bug. There are references to global warming, mother nature, and our impact on the earth everywhere- the curators definitely consider the grounds to be the largest canvas, cultivating wild grasses and flowers everywhere.

The day was gorgeous, and I’m glad we went, even if it left me feeling a little provincial with more of an appreciation for the nature than the art.

I genuinely loved several things at Storm King, although possibly not in the way the artist intended- my fav was a bronze fountain that I dubbed “Even Cthulhu gets thirsty:”

It’s a little hard to see, but it’s melty bronze in different shapes and watching the water come down in constantly changing patterns was mesmerizing. A fountain is on next year’s garden to-do list, so we may have to try some form of recreation here.

Also very relaxing was the kinetic sculpture “Sea Change,” which we watched for a long time:

George Cutts speaks about his sculpture Sea Change at Storm King from Storm King Art Center on Vimeo.

After spending hours listening to people wax rhapsodic at the Art Center (well, not so much ‘people’ as the tram’s guided tour), for dinner we ended up down the road apiece in Fort Montgomery, just outside of West Point.

It was a down n’ dirty place, same owner for over 25 years, same ancient clattery cash register that I desperately wish I’d thought to take a picture of (“It’s a genuine National! You usedta couldn’t get parts for it, but now they’re collectable, so it’s all on eBay,” the barmaid of 30 years said with amazement). Cash only, and it being a non-weekend night the only food on offer was Sysco’s finest, but fried up hot and brought out quick.

And it was the first and only time my Jack and Coke was proffered with a bendy straw:

And served with a flag paper placemat, because West Point, duh.

All in all, I’m a big fan of big contrasts, so it was a great day.