The two Alexander Calder works in the Sculpture Garden are being repainted to protect the works from the elements. As with Spoonbridge and Cherry, this process happens every five years.

The gray primer coats on The Spinner and Octopus:

Calder “signed” his sculptures — something I just discovered earlier this week. I’d never noticed it before.

Garden conservation isn’t just about painting efforts — there’s fire involved, too. Noah was hard at work hot-waxing a couple of bronze works. This process seals bronze in order to protect the patina from the elements. First, a blowtorch is used in a localized area. After it’s hot, a formulated mixture of waxes are applied with a brush. After the wax cools, it’s buffed to a glow.

I really enjoyed taking photos for my “Sculpture or garden?” post. Late last week, I found some late summer flowers. It’s not too often that we see new sculptures in the garden, but the plants evolve with each passing season.

Mark Di Suvero’s Arikidea is a popular work in the garden. After all, it invites viewer participation — how could you not want to swing on it for a while?

Unfortunately, it broke last weekend. Reckless swingers? Intentional damage? Who knows?

One of the brackets that supports the swing broke. The bracket is being fixed in Burnsville as we speak, and it should be back and functional by Monday.