THIS BLOG IS MOVING TO A NEW HOME

This blog has been moved to:
whatsbeautifulinyourlife.blogspot.com.

All the old entries from this blog are included in the new blog.

COME CHECK IT OUT!

Flint Hills Singing Garden Display

Here is the completed time-lapse video of the install and de-install of the Singing Garden installation at the Flint Hills International Children's Festival.



Many thanks to the GREAT staff at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, Philip Blackburn, Angela Koebler and all the volunteers and City of Saint Paul staff that helped to make this installation possible. It was an experience of a life time.

What's beautiful in your life?
http://www.mgranlund.com/

Flint Hills Children's Festival SInging Garden Install

Here is a time-lapse video of the most of the installation of the Singing Garden. A complete video will be posted when the Flint Hills International Children's Fetsival is complete.


The Singing Garden is a collaboration between myself, Angela Koebler and Philip Blackburn. I, Mark Granlund, am the Arts and Gardens Coordinator for Saint Paul Parks and Recreation, Angela Koebler is the Lead Landscaper for Parks and Recreation and Philip Blackburn Ph.D. is a composer/musician with the American Composer's Forum. Angela and I designed and created the floral display part of the Singing Garden while Philip created a soundtrack of vegetable and plant sounds for the garden. Individual sounds from the soundtrack can be heard on twenty speakers throughout the garden.

The installation is on display until Sunday, May 31 at 5pm.

The video was shot by Philip. EnJOY!

What's beautiful in your life?
http://www.mgranlund.com/

May Flower Painting of the Month: Winnipeg Rose Hips

This is the Flower Painting of the Month for May. This is a 14" x 18" oil painting on canvas of a Winnipeg Rose bush in my front yard. The plant has bloomed and the the blossoms have fallen off. What is left is the hip, which contains the seed. These are sometimes used for tea - rosehip tea.

This painting is also available at auction: Click Here

To see this painting and more art, go to: HERE or HERE

What's beautiful in your life?
http://www.mgranlund.com/

Art Auction: Vase of Yellow Flowers

This is an original oil painting of a vase of a variety of yellow flowers on a 12" x 9" x .5" oil board. It is painted on the sides and the front. No need to frame. By artist Mark Granlund.

This is a painting of a vase of flowers in my studio. The flowers were cut from my garden.

10% of sale will go to Gardening Matters, a non-profit that supports and coordinates urban agriculture in the Twin Cities area.

To bid click here.

To find out more about the artist and his work, go to: http://www.mgranlund.com or http://artist-insearchofbeauty.blogspot.com.

What's beautiful in your life?
http://www.mgranlund.com/

2009 Art in Bloom

I visited the annual Art in Bloom exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Art that runs from April 29 - May 2. In this exhibit, floral artists create a floral display to interpret a work of art in the museum. There are well over a hundred entrants every year and it is a very well attended exhibit with workshops, lectures and a dinner as part of the festivities.



The people attending the exhibit vote on the the Best in Show and Most Whimsical pieces. Four years ago, a piece entered by Angela Koebler and myself, on behalf of the Saint Paul Parks and Recreation Department, swept the awards. Three years ago we won third place. Last year, we were too busy with getting ready Saint Paul for the Repubican National Convention. This year we are too busy pulling together the Flint Hills International Children's Festival display. I think this is a wonderful and absolutely enjoyable event, so I thought I would pull something together so others could experience it, too.

What's beautiful in your life?
http://www.mgranlund.com/

Do We Know Ourselves Better?

Excerpt from The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales by Bruno Bettelheim:

If a child is told only stories "true to reality" (which means false to important parts of his inner reality), then he may conclude that much of his inner reality is unacceptable to his parents. Many a child thus estranges himself from his inner life, and this depletes him. As a consequence he may later, as an adolescent no longer under the emotional sway of his parents, come to hate the rational world and escape entirely into a fantasy world, as if to make up for what was lost in childhood. At an older age, on occasion this could imply a severe break with reality, with all of the dangerous concequences for the individual and society. Or, less seriously, the person may continue this encapsulation of his inner self all through his life and never feel fully satisfied in the world because, alienated from the unconscious processes, he cannot use them to enrich his life in reality. Life is then neither a "pleasure" nor a "kind of eccentric privilege." With such separation, whatever happens in reality fails to offer appropriate satisfaction of unconscious needs. The result is that the person always feels life is incomplete.

This Bettelheim dude is so righteous. Yeah, I know that in the 1980's it was all chill to blame the parents for one's current psychological problems. It is convenient to say that your parents, as adults, couldn't relate to your inner-life as a child, as expressed in the stories read to you. Therefore, you as an adult, feel a sense of purposelessness or ennui as you move through life. But that is just kinda lame don't you think? If you ask me, and more importantly on this blog, if I ask me, adults feel a sense of purposelessness and ennui because we haven't yet claimed our lives as our own. We may still be stuck in the parent/child relationship and waiting for someone to fix things for us, or somehow we just aren't ready to be an individual. It is hard these days to be an individual. There is no extended family around to help teach and model for us. We are too busy - our schedules are too full to have the time to understand a greater purpose in our lives than our job.

My question in all this is: have we ever known ourselves better than we do now? Has it ever been easier? Of course, we can be romantic and assume that things were easier in the old days. But we know so much more about our own psychological makeup than ever before. Seeking self-worth and value is everywhere in our society from Oprah to our schools to all kinds of counseling. I think there are probably more smart people than ever before in this world because we have a language for talking about those odd inner processes that we need to harness in order to be happy. I personally find that, in this society, it is becoming easier to be rational about my inner desires and less dramatic. Part of that is my age, but I feel part of that is just a direction our society is moving in. I think the way the media and politicians try to hype us into decisions is wearing off, partly because in this age we have a better understanding of how these messages get conveyed.

There have always been guides in life on how to be happy. These days we have self-help books and psychological tests and counseling. In the old days they had fairy tales and religious teachings. Our language and understanding of the inner life is much greater today. But what it comes down to is are you happier? - and that question has a much more complex answer than whether you heard fairy tales as a child.

What's beautiful in your life?
http://www.mgranlund.com/