S.T.E.A.M. Seek and Learn in the Sculpture Garden: Outdoor Sculpture, Environment and Maintenance
Do you know what a sculpture garden is?
It is a very pretty place where you find plants of all types like trees, bushes and flowers nicely designed with sculptures. There are also some benches all over the garden for you to sit and enjoy the outside, plants and sculptures. Our garden is called the Jo Anne and Donald Petersen Sculpture Garden. They wanted all visitors to have a beautiful place to visit and enjoy the garden and sculptures. They were friends with Marshall and own one of his Flying Wild Geese sculptures.
It is a very pretty place where you find plants of all types like trees, bushes and flowers nicely designed with sculptures. There are also some benches all over the garden for you to sit and enjoy the outside, plants and sculptures. Our garden is called the Jo Anne and Donald Petersen Sculpture Garden. They wanted all visitors to have a beautiful place to visit and enjoy the garden and sculptures. They were friends with Marshall and own one of his Flying Wild Geese sculptures.
As we walk through the garden we’ll learn about science, outside sculpture environment and maintenance.
Outside Sculpture, Environment and Maintenance
When you create sculpture for outside you have to use materials that can withstand weather elements. Metal and stone are art media types often used in outdoor sculpture. Marshall Fredericks used metal and stone in many of his sculptures in the garden and sometimes water too.
Many artists combine different media to make sculpture. Many of the sculptures in our garden have a base that is made of stone or concrete. Can you see which sculptures that have stone or concrete bases? Why do you think there is a concrete “pad” under the sculptures? If you said that the sculptures and stones are heavy and over time, weather elements can make them shift and become unlevel. An example would be an old cemetery in which grave stones have shifted over time and look like they are tipped and not level.
Look closely where the stone and metal meet on a few sculptures. The Don Quixote sculpture is a good example of using an epoxy adhesive to seal the sculpture and stone parts. You’ll notice some sculptures have an epoxy adhesive and some don’t. If there is no epoxy adhesive, that means there may be small “weep holes” on the sculpture where the water has to drain and flow down inside the sculpture (they are hollow) to the base and drain out from under it. We’ll learn more about “weep holes” later.
Below are two images of the Don Quixote sculpture that show the epoxy adhesive in three places. The photo on the left shows the epoxy adhesive is in between the metal and the stone. The photo in the center is the same sculpture and the epoxy adhesive is between the two joined stone sections and also the stone and the concrete. In this case, the epoxy adhesive is meant to keep water from getting inside the metal sculpture, stone and concrete.
The photo on the right shows no epoxy adhesive between the concrete and metal. There are small “weep holes” on this sculpture, Black Elk, for drainage.
We just mentioned “weep holes” in an earlier paragraph. If you visit the Lion and Mouse sculpture, you’ll notice some small holes. See the close-up photo of a small hole on Lion and Mouse to the left. Why do you think there is a hole there? They are called “weep holes”. When it rains, water collects in the crevice spaces of the sculptures and the small hole allows water to drain and not “pond” there. If it didn’t, the water would damage and discolor the sculpture, especially in winter, when it freezes. How many “weep holes” do you count on the Lion and Mouse Sculpture?
We just mentioned “weep holes” in an earlier paragraph. If you visit the Lion and Mouse sculpture, you’ll notice some small holes. See the close-up photo of a small hole on Lion and Mouse to the left. Why do you think there is a hole there? They are called “weep holes”. When it rains, water collects in the crevice spaces of the sculptures and the small hole allows water to drain and not “pond” there. If it didn’t, the water would damage and discolor the sculpture, especially in winter, when it freezes. How many “weep holes” do you count on the Lion and Mouse Sculpture?
Each year our sculptures are cleaned and polished. All outside sculpture needs to be maintained annually. When water gets into a stone hole it can crack. This happened with the Pterodactyls and had to be fixed. The stone part of that sculpture had to be replaced, otherwise the metal sculpture could have fallen.
Look at the photo to the right. You see the foot of Persephone. At the tip of the toe you see a metal screw rod that runs from the toe of the metal sculpture into a hole in the stone. An epoxy adhesive around the screw rod secures the sculpture to the stone. Over time, weather may weaken this adhesive and need to be repaired before damage occurs. Our sculptures are cleaned by a professional sculpture cleaning company, Venus Bronze Works of Detroit, and they look for issues like this and repair it before damage occurs to the sculpture.
If you find the Wings of the Morning sculpture, you can clearly see that water has found its way into the stone from under the metal sculpture. Where the metal and stone meet you can see cracking in the stone. Water in the stone froze in winter and cracked it. See photos of the cracks below. Eventually the stone will need to be replaced and the words engraved into it will have to be redone.
Did you notice the Night and Day Fountain in front of the large Museum window? Water flows over the sculpture and splashes and it looks very beautiful. Artists will often use water as another medium. Since it continually flows over the sculpture as time passes, this makes it 4th dimension. Did you remember that two dimensional has length and width, three dimensional has length, width and depth and fourth dimension has length, width, depth and time?
You may have noticed the white stains on the basin of the sculpture. This is hard water stains; it has a high mineral content. Hard water is formed when water percolates through deposits of limestone, chalk or gypsum which are largely made up of calcium and magnesium carbonates, bicarbonates and sulfates. It leaves a white deposit over a surface. You may have noticed this at home. Many people have water softeners that eliminate this problem. Unfortunately, our sculpture fountain doesn’t, so it has to be cleaned off the stone. The proper cleaning agent needs to be used to not damage the stone basin.
I hope you had fun learning about our outside sculpture, the environment and the importance of maintenance!
Don’t forget to Participate in the GLBR STEM OST Passport Program:
Please remember in order to participate in the Passport program, log five (5) STEM experiences across the Great Lakes Bay Region to win a prize from the MiSTEM Network (while supplies last). Access this site for more information at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfESy_jW-RNWG8KGQ_20ev6e6_HXVqgjtdH1hqnj17CY7x-MQ/viewform
To be eligible, you will need to visit and/or attend five (5) different STEM destinations or programs and take photos of your child participating in STEM activities. Please send the pictures to [email protected]
Also, feel free to post them on social media and tag us at Twitter: @stemgreatlakes or Facebook: @stempipeline.
For the Museum Facebook post at @marshallfredericksmuseum, and Instagram #marshallfredericksmuseum
You can e-mail all five experiences at one time or send them after each visit. All experiences must be completed by June 30, 2021 to be eligible for a prize.
For more information, please visit: https:/ /www.stempipeline.com/out-of-school-time/
Find more Marshall Fredericks Sculpture Museum virtual activities and resources at: marshallfredericks.org
Did you know our garden is a Pokemon location. Check it out!