I See Inspiration

Inspiration.  That is the only way to describe The Magic Gardens in Philadelphia, PA.  Back in April of this year, my mom, sister, niece, and I took a weekend long girls’ trip to Philly.  One afternoon my sister suggested we go to The Magic Gardens.  It sounds fantastic, doesn’t it?  The Magic Gardens – it brings up imagery of The Secret Garden (one of my favorite books as a child) and all sorts of wonderful things.  This particular “garden”, however, is not made up of plant life but it is chock full of splendor and imagination.

If you’ve never heard of this wonderful place, their Mission Statement says “Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens (PMB) preserves the artworks of Isaiah Zagar and educates the public about mosaic and folk art.  By making art accessible, PMG seeks to foster civic engagement, community beautification, and artistic collaboration”.  To learn more about the amazing story behind this place and the inspiring artist, click on this link:  http://www.phillymagicgardens.org/

My sister told me this place was covered in mosaics (a medium that I love).  I thought, “that sounds cool” and went along with it.  Her words (and mine now for that matter) do not do this place justice.  Overwhelming is putting it mildly.  I took A LOT of pictures with my 35mm film camera.  Even my pictures do not do it justice but I will attempt to try and inspire you with these photos, as the place inspired me.  I’m still moved by it and envious of the lifelong commitment Mr. Zagar made to his community and his passion.  I want to live my artistic life that way and so far, I am taking baby steps to get there.

So, without further ado, I will give you a small snippet of this insanely amazing labyrinth of mosaics. 

If you have a love of art, a love of community, and a drive to keep both alive, I highly suggest visiting The Magic Gardens and donating to keep it alive.  If we all lived our lives this passionately and determined, imagine what our world would be? 

Going off the rails on a crazy train

Have you ever said something out loud, forgetting that no one else was privy to the whole conversation you had going on inside your head leading to that thought?  I do it quite a bit.  One night, I asked my husband what his current thought was (he didn’t have one).  Then he asked me what mine was and I said, “I was thinking about bat blood.” 

I’m thinking this is a completely normal thing to think about, on a random week night while sitting next to my husband on the couch, right?  (I wasn’t right but you probably know that, so I digress.)  Of course, I promptly had to explain my train of thought so I thought it would make a good post.  So here is my train of thought to Bat Blood. 

SCENE:  Sitting on the couch next to my husband.  I may or may not have been crocheting. 

1. The T.V. was on, to rot my brain, and a commercial with a dog came on the screen.  It was cute.
2. I started thinking about funny dog breeds.  Shitzu was the first one I thought about because of its great name.
3. It reminded me of a joke.  I couldn’t quite remember the whole joke but I knew the punch line was “it was a shitzu!”  Get it?  Shitzu…shitzoo…shit zoo.
4. I was still chuckling to myself about the shitzu.  I may have thought, “good one, Sara!”
5. I thought about the zoo and how I’d like to go soon.
6. I thought about animals in captivity at the zoo and how it’s not always a good thing.
7. Then I thought if it’s not a good thing, what’s the point in having a zoo?
8. Then, being the optimist I am, I started to think of reasons that a zoo is good.
9. I thought, I bet a lot of kids who grow up to help animals and go into jobs that end in Ologist or Inarian, probably got the idea going to the zoo.
10. If they first became interested after a trip to the zoo, I wonder if there was one, stand out memory that is what triggered it.  I wonder if they still talk about that defining moment in their life.
11. Did I have one memory from going to the zoo?
12. Yes, I do.
13. In elementary school I went on a field trip to the Cincinnati Zoo.  On that trip, we got to do a behind the scenes tour to see what the zoo keepers (and other Ologists and Inarians) do.  It was all very interesting, I assume, but I only remember one thing.
14. They feed the Vampire Bats blood – cow blood, to be exact.  However, they have to purify it so the bats don’t get sick.
15. The Ologists and Inarians take a big vat of cow blood, roll up their shirt sleeves, scrub their hands and arms like they are going into surgery, and then…get ready…stir the bat blood WITH THEIR ARMS!!!  Apparently, clean arm hairs will pick out some gross things that can get into cow blood and hurt the bats. 
16. One thing wrong with this logic of de-grossifying the blood --- it’s still gross.  It’s blood and now these Ologists and Inarians have bloody arms.  I remember them liking this job.  I remember liking that job too – from afar.
17. Cow blood is gross.
18. Bats eat (drink?) blood.
19. I think a Twilight-ish movie would be funny where a bat falls in love with a cow.  The forbidden love.
20. If bats eat/drink blood, then does it change their blood at all? 
21. I guess it wouldn’t since we eat meat and our blood is still human blood.  I can’t imagine that a little bat would have a lot of blood anyway. 
22. Bat blood.

And there you have it.  When it happened, that train {of thought} ride probably lasted 5 minutes, if that.  And yes, I made up words and I probably (read: definitely) did not check facts about bat blood, but that happens sometimes on the train.  I think if I tried to make my random thoughts follow direction, I would never have any really creative ideas.  So my suggestion to you would be to just let the crazy fly sometimes.  You’d be surprised how much more creative you can be if you don’t limit your imagination and thoughts.

How’s that for unfocused creativity?  Now, dear readers, tell me I’m not completely crazy and that you think of this kind of thing too.   And…go!