NY--Walk across the Hudson and Storm King 10/25/2016

I'm so glad we decided to come back north in October. By the time we got here, all the foliage was at

View from the Walkway: The Mid-Hudson Bridge

peak color, providing us the experience we would never have had this year if we had stayed home.
Since we had never done the walk across the Hudson, we headed there first. The Walk across the Hudson is a former railroad bridge that has been converted to a walking/biking trail. The bridge runs between Highland and Poughkeepsie NY and offers fabulous views north and south. Another day in the 70s made for a delightful stroll.

Pictures are here: https://goo.gl/photos/vXYDm33DEBYaX4Xu9

Alternative Landscape Components

We then headed over to Storm King Art Center, an open air museum in Mountainville, NY. It purportedly has the largest collection of contemporary outdoor sculptures in the US. It is about an hour drive north of NYC and sits on 500 acres. The sculptures are situated in locations all around the landscape: some in the woods, some on hills, some in open grassy areas, and all situated exactly per the artist's wishes. Although the landscape looks natural, each installation was carefully crafted according to the wishes of each artist. Truthfully, my taste and understanding of art had me scratching my head at some of the works. One of those was a piece called "Alternative Landscape Components", trees, rocks, and bushes made of plastic pipes, and steel drums.

In the visitor center, we experienced the Dennis Oppenheim exhibition "Terrestrial Studio", which included a piece called "Two Jumps for Dead Dog Creek", an installation of 2 x 4s and sand

Two Jumps...

imprinted with footprints. I may be obtuse, but this does not compute as art, unless art is whatever the artist says it is. Hey, at the MOMA in NYC, we saw the iconic blank framed canvas. Brilliant art, or big joke? In another room of the center museum, a video screen showed a video recording of Mr. Oppenheim walking in the woods and attaching sticks and brush to his body. Title of the piece was "Toward Becoming a Scarecrow". Yaaaaaaaaaawwwn.

But many other works were interesting. "Sea Change", 2 curving stainless steel poles that turn slowly in opposite directions, was mesmerizing. Another work, (title unknown) was composed of 3 giant frames mounted on 10-12 foot high poles. When you lie on the ground under each piece, the sky is the framed piece of art.

There are so many monumental sculptures, it's hard to see them all as you wander throughout the Storm King property. It's definitely worth a visit.

There are more pictures here: https://goo.gl/photos/3zP1ckEh6QWojphCA