In a couple weeks, our grandchildren will come visit. We call it “Colorado Camp,” and have adventures every day for a whole week. One of the adventures will be a scavenger hunt in the sculpture park. Last week, I photographed parts of several sculptures, a foot, a feather, a spiral, toes, intriguing textures. The challenge for TJ and Lucia will be to match the close-up detail shots to the sculptures. They love those hidden picture puzzles, so I think they’ll like this one.
Benson Sculpture Park in Loveland, Colorado covers 10 acres and contains over 150 sculptures of a variety of styles and subjects. Every year, a couple more pieces are added. We’ve been to the park dozens of times. It is the first place we take visitors. I’ve seen every piece of art in the park. Multiple times.
Or thought I had.
This time, as I walked and photographed, thinking about the planned scavenger hunt, I saw differently. I saw details I had passed by dozens of times without noticing. I saw a couple pieces I thought were new, but it was just that we walked clockwise this time instead of our usual counter-clockwise. The pieces came in a different order. I came upon them from a different perspective. The light may have been different. Our visitors were drawn to pieces I hadn’t paid much attention to because I had favorites I always focused on. I saw through fresh eyes, not only because of the close-up lens on my camera, but also because of my friends’ observations. I looked at their choices and listened to the stories they connected to those choices.
Later I wondered: Do I do that in other situations?
See only a fraction of what is right before my eyes?
Once I have a perspective, is it cast in bronze?
Do I think I know a person, place or thing because I’ve experienced that Noun a dozen times, and never looked at it through a different lens, a different perspective? Never walked clock-wise instead of counter-clock-wise? Do I share my conclusions without waiting long enough to hear what others have to say?
It only took a different lens, and different visitors, to find things I had not seen before.
I took a walk in a park last week. A park I’ve walked dozens of times.
I took a walk in a park last week. A park I’ve never seen before.
Come visit! Let’s walk and talk in that park.
