Dogwood Basin

Dogwood Basin, 2008
Nancy Blum
30 basins cast out of bronze mounted on platforms.
Charlotte Area Transit System Rail Line, Charlotte, NC

The inspiration for all of Nancy Blum's work is flowers and botanicals, from large scale drawings to public works, she reinvents the beauty of the flower in myriad ways. I think these water fountains are just wonderful. She transforms the delicate nature of, well nature, into a variety of materials, from ink to porcelain to bronze. Blum was commissioned to do this work, the state flower of NC is the dogwood. Public transit is a popular arena for art commissioning. Many transit systems have a programs dedicated to commissioning art for their stations, vehicles etc. Nancy Blum - public art See earlier blog post on another public transit art work.

I've tried to share a variety of types of art that have nature at their base. From painting and photography to ephemeral earth art and sturdy, utilitarian public art. In all these works, the artists are reconstituting what they see in nature, immortalizing it in a photograph, abstracting and infusing it in paint, rearranging its aesthetic in nature and casting its likeness in a bronze waterfountain. We are reintroduced to nature through the artist's eyes, hand and material.