SKYPONDS

Skyponds by Joseph Miller and Oliver Doriss at W.W. Seymour Botanical Conservatory at Wright Park, Tacoma.

In June, the wife, the child, and I wandered around Tacoma's Wright Park on a beautifully sunny day. We spent the day peering into ponds, walking in the shade of the park's well-kept trees, sitting near or upon statues, and playing on toys. The highlight of our visit, though, was the W.W. Seymour Botanical Conservatory. The conservatory is filled with amazing specimens of fauna, both local and foreign, both ordinary and exotic. But we were there for the Skyponds.

Skyponds are glass bowls suspended by wires and hooks, either individually or in small constellations. The skyponds triggered both natural and artificial echoes within me. My first impulse was that skyponds were "heavy clouds" of a sort, collecting moisture from condensation and waterings of the plants. My second sensation was that skyponds were cousins to the bottoms of deformed two-liter pop bottles. I then found it difficult to divorce myself of either image. Another echo-image that kept haunting me was of large overripe fruit, albeit clear and malformed. One moment I found the skyponds creepy, the next comforting.

Needless to say, the skyponds were (and are) very interesting. Not only do they inhabit physical space, but they also inhabit time, something that many artists, collectors, galleries, and museums try to keep from "ravaging" their pieces of art. Not here. The metal of the wires, hooks, cables, and bars has been allowed to rust in the humidity and warmth. The skyponds collect water during waterings and lose it to evaporation. Algae grows in some and mineral stains are left behind in others. It gives what could otherwise feel out of place to be very much a part of this planned and controlled "world." It allows a degree of the organic into the manmade, much in the same way that the conservatory itself functions.

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You can view more pictures of Skyponds in their natural setting at the troysworktable Flickr page.