A Day Trip to Sarasota Part II: Marietta Museum of Art and Whimsy

Bushnell, FL - Events of Thursday, March 5, 2015

As we wrote in our last post, we headed to Sarasota last Thursday to have breakfast at Der Dutchman Restaurant and to do some sightseeing. After breakfast, we did a little shopping, visited the Sarasota Garden Club display garden, then headed to the Marietta Museum of Art and Whimsy.

The Marietta Museum is only open from the end of October through the end of May. The hours are 1:00 to 4:00 on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Admission to the museum is free, although there is a suggested donation of $5 per person.

We discovered the museum last year and really liked it. Since much of the artwork on display changes every year, we wanted to go back again this year and see what was new.

Marietta Museum of Art and Whimsy

The Marietta Museum of Art and Whimsy was opened in Florida in 2009 by Marietta Lee. Ms. Lee, who was an ER nurse and EMT, discovered art could lift her spirits from the tragedies she sometimes witnessed as a nurse.

In addition to being an RN, Ms. Lee also has art degrees from Eastern Kentucky University and from the Ringling College of Art and Design. Her museum features colorful, uplifting, sometimes humorous artwork mostly by Florida artists.

A sculpture outside the front door that caught Paul's eye was a porpoise playfully frolicking through the waves. The highly polished granite makes the porpoise look like it's wet.

Granite porpoise outside museum

Right inside the door were several delicate clay sculptures of orchids in miniature by Liu Wen Mei. One of them is shown below. The sculpture is only a few inches tall and has incredible detail.

Clay sculpture of an orchid

Many of the paintings in the museum have tropical themes with bright colors. The one below is "Angel Trumpets" by James Griffin.

"Angel Trumpets" by James Griffin

And the next is "West Palm Triple Tree" by James Gibson.

"West Palm Triple Tree" by James Gibson

Even the rest rooms feature artwork. The stained glass window by Shady Oak Studio shown below is in the mens room.

"Koi Fish" by Shady Oak Studio

There are several whimsical soft sculptures by Edna Tkachuk. "I Love Cats" is only about a foot tall and sits on a shelf.

I Love Cats" by Edna Tkachuk

Behind the museum is a patio and sculpture garden.

Patio and part of the garden behind the museum

Flying pigs sculpture in the garden

Flamingo sculpture

There is additional parking across a side street, and even the parking lot has sculptures. The colorful giraffe below looks like it is reaching up to try to eat the palm tree.

Giraffe sculpture in the parking lot

Another parking lot sculpture made from blue glass bottles

We enjoyed seeing the Marietta Museum again and all the new pieces being shown this year, and we were pleased to see a much bigger crowd at the museum than there was when we were there last year. We are also happy to report the museum is expanding. There is an addition to the museum building under construction and there are also plans for a cafe.

We left the Marietta Museum of Art and Whimsy and headed back to Blueberry Hill. About half an hour south of Bushnell, a car that was traveling 4 or 5 vehicles ahead of us suddenly veered off the left side of the highway and disappeared down over the berm into the trees. With everyone ahead of us trying to all stop at once, there was a mass screeching of tires. Paul somehow managed not to rear-end the van ahead of us and to stay out of the path of the semi beside us.

We brought the truck safely to a stop on the shoulder and Paul ran to the wrecked vehicle along with several others while Margery called 911. There was a lone occupant in the car. That was a good thing because the passenger side was totally crushed. The driver, who appeared to be unconscious, was pinned in his seat. After futile attempts to open the passenger door, someone had the brilliant idea of going in through the back seat.

I-75 wreck

One woman at the scene appeared to be a nurse and took charge. She and a man got into the back seat and began tending to the man trapped in the car. They initially called out for water, but soon began to call for juice. We tried to stay out of the way, so we don't know exactly what was going on, but the request for juice indicated to us the man may have been a diabetic and may have gone into insulin shock. That could explain the reason he ran off the road and never hit the brakes.

After about 7 or 8 minutes, the fire rescue truck and ambulance arrived. We decided it would be best to get out of the way so they could do their jobs, so we hopped into the truck and continued on our way back to Bushnell. It was a somber ending to an otherwise beautiful day. An online news report we found the following day said the 79-year old man was in critical condition with unspecified injuries. We weren't able to find any further information.

Back at the fiver, we relaxed for the evening and on into the weekend. We had no definite plans for the following week, but we'll let you know if something pops up.

Comments

[cheryl]

Bless his heart, hope he's going to be ok. Looks like a hard hit.

Glad ya'll are ok!

[Paul and Marsha]

What a very cool place. I love the big snowman at the entrance.

So glad to hear there wasn't a passenger. The accident looks awful. Be praying for the gentleman in the driver's seat.

[Paul and Margery Zeller]

Seeing something like this up close and personal quickly dispels the thought that we're invincible when we're traveling in a vehicle. Makes seeing irrational, irresponsible drivers even more frustrating.

[Janice Williford Evans]

Being an art lover, you know I loved every minute of this tour. . .the "Angel Trumpets" was my very fave. . .

Thanking the Lord for His angels of protection, and that you guys were able to get safely out of the way.

Life can change in a moment, can't it?