Henry Lay Sculpture Park

We are still exploring Missouri!  In the past we have traveled up state highway 79, either taking one of our children or another to a college in Iowa or Minnesota.  We have also driven the road for fun times in Hannibal, home of the author Samuel Clemons.  Over the years we never paid much attention to the small town of  Louisiana located along that highway.  It is just south of Hannibal, and has a population 3,300.  Driving through the town I got a feeling that I had been there before, but no it just looked like another river town- Herman, Missouri.  Both towns have a few large Victorian homes around still, possibly owned by local river captains back at the turn of the twentieth century.

The Lay Sculpture park is located in Louisiana, and is set on approximately 20 acres, surrounded by 350 acres of natural meadows, rolling hills and lakes.  Part of this area includes the McElwee Artists Residences, a retreat center for St.Louis University.  Henry Lay (April,1941-Oct. 2000),an alumnus of the university's law school, purchased the property in 1996.  His dream was to establish a place where art and literature are paired with the beauty of nature.  John McElwee, a Revolutionary hero first owned the farm property in 1832.

There are many sculptures located in this park.  A rather amusing one, pictured above, is of a man pulling a horse sitting rather comfortably in a wagon.

Walking around one of the lakes we came upon the Three Sisters,a sculpture done by artist Bing Cheng from Beijing.  In front of them is a rather broken down bridge- the whole park looks in need of some repairs, probably no thanks to the Corona virus.

The artist of the sculpture Infinity Revisited, pictured above, came back in 2016 to repair it.  It is an art work comprised of rocks and wood - a large infinity symbol which "erodes back into the landscape", the quote is from signage at the site.  The signage gives a very good explanation for the art work and raises the question of what is our relationship to nature, are we a part of it, or separate from it?   That is easily answered by John and I, because by embracing nature we have been keeping our sanity during the covid crisis which requires distancing from other humans!

I will end this with Westward Journey, art work done by sculptor Reynaldo Rivera in 2018.