Drawing The Day Away

Jonathan and I rode our bikes to the Walker Art Center recently. We didn’t actually set foot inside the Walker itself, instead we meandered around the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden seeing all sorts of artwork like rabbits jumping over bells and a frame featuring the Basilica of Saint Mary.


And we couldn’t miss the most iconic sculpture there--the Spoonbridge and Cherry.


I kinda wanted to run underneath it because the day was hot and the cherry stem is a fountain. Alas, I restrained myself.

Eventually, we wandered over to the Walker Open Field, an ongoing summer art event that’s free and open to the public, taking place on the lawn adjacent to the Walker. At the “toolshed” you can check out ipads, books, kites and any number of other fun items to spark your creative fire. Did I mention that it’s FREE? If you’re feeling a bit peckish, then walk a few feet and chow down at the Open Field Bar & Grill by Wolfgang Puck (NOT so free).

We arrived to find all sorts of people buzzing about. Children chased a soccer ball while their parents sat reading in the shade. A local artist constructed an interactive sculpture from branches and reeds, eventually forming a hollow egg that the kids adopted as a fort. All types of people gathered around long picnic tables drawing with an assortment of pencils, markers and crayons, creating sketches of cityscapes, cartoon characters and various abstractions as part of the Drawing Club.

The Drawing Club is an ongoing collaborative art experiment where anyone in the community can sit down and . . . draw. All the material is provided, and you either start a drawing from scratch or add to a drawing someone else started. When you’re done, leave your sketch behind for someone else to play with. Jonathan drew a relaxing beach scene with brightly-colored umbrellas and I drew a flowering, rainbow mandala and then we set down our pens and moved on down the road.