Vignettes of Poughkeepsie: Vassar Farm and Ecological Preserve, Monday, September 4, 12:40 p.m.
It’s an early Monday afternoon at Vassar Farm and Ecological Preserve with the sky clear and the sun brightly covering the grass. As soon as you drive up you are met with a mix of different colors. The newly planted tomatoes by the gardens juxtapose greatly against the fully grown lavender flowers and orange blossoms that follow the gray gravel paths.
There is a new warning sign about keeping dogs leashed for the safety of the preserve’s goats, although after looking around for a considerable amount of time it became clear there were no goats on the preserve (maybe the dogs made the goats scarce?). The air is filled with the calming sounds of birds chirping and dragonflies buzzing with rare occurrences of bike pairs, dog walkers, joggers, and families admiring the vegetation.
“How much is the mileage from here to home?” asked a middle-aged man to a girl who presumably might be his daughter. “I think it should be enough from here,” said the girl. “I hope it is.” said the man appearing somewhat fatigued.
One middle-aged blonde haired woman appears to be taking a stroll with her two Boston Terriers. A young woman looking to be in her early 20’s quickly jogs past the woman with her dogs, the young woman seeming determined to finish her run.
Two parents and their grown daughter are wandering around the fences by the gardens eyeing the new vegetables being set in the soil.
“I love coming here,” said the father. “You can walk around the fields and see the different foods being grown.”
“Yeah, I love the food that they grow here because we have a garden in our backyard and there is nothing better than knowing where your food is being grown.” The mother returns her focus to the plants. “Wow, look how tall these tomatoes have grown.”
Around the preserve’s center, there seem to be new additions of art sculptures constructed specifically by Vassar students entitled “Art Farm.” Each sculpture seems to be uniquely different from the other. Jack Rusinek’s “King Belotes” by the gardens are three giant brownish yellow mushrooms all distinct in height. Peter’s Schlemowitz’s “Hoe Down” by the green path shows a large pitchfork, a gold sickle, and a brown hoe intersecting with each other. Laurie Sheridan’s “Whirly” by the flowers resembles Harry Potter’s Sorting Hat only looking yellow with dead butterflies inside the hat making it also resemble a yellow clear garbage bag with dead butterflies inside it. Chris Oliver’s “The Endless Picnic Tables, Then and Now” look like an uneven and unstable Jenga set of old mini picnic tables.
Judging from the artwork it seems that the students had to form a certain theme incorporating nature around their own individual sculpture, and that they additionally had to place their sculpture in a section that would stick out to visitors who happen to be on the preserve. It is interesting to note that someone decided to present the sculptures in the ecological preserve and not inside of a museum exhibit where one would typically be able to find them. I think that the theme of the sculptures goes better with the preserve rather than the inside of a glass case anyway.
This preserve highlights a good combination of the art that Hudson Valley’s nature inspires along with the beautiful vegetation the preserve cultivates. It’s just unfortunate that there aren’t a lot of people witnessing this beauty on a Monday afternoon.
