A walk in the spring rain at Cheekwood today.

Art as Water Sanitation Plant, Cheekwood Gardens, Nashville. (click/enlarge).

I was walking thru the Sculpture Trail at Cheekwood on Sunday. I was in front of a mother and daughter, walking down the trail. When we got to this one large sculpture, (my favorite), the mother turned to the daughter and said, “Oh, that must be the Water Sanitation area”. I laughed, and said, “No, no, you’ve GOT to go inside of it. It’s ART; not a Water Sanitation plant!” They were shocked, and carefully made their way down the trail and went inside.

That piece has sort of haunted me ever since then, and today I went back to photograph it. It’s probably twenty feet across, with a circular hole in the roof, and when you walk down the entry hallway, you then come to the main round room. A similar circle of black coal is in the floor, underneath the circular “skylight”. And the whole thing made of solid concrete and steel doors. (Someone write to me with the artist, so I can credit them). (Update: The artist is James Turrell).

Anyway, I sat in the car for an hour today, waiting for the rain to stop, and then at some point, just threw on a hat and went on out there. It was great walking in the light rain, with no one else there on the grounds.