GLAZA – Diversions LA

Let There Be Light: Light Art That Is

Posted on November 21, 2019November 21, 2019 by Diversions LA

From Bruce Munro’s elegant, haunting Sensorio Field of Light in Paso Robles to the variety of poetic light art exhibitions at Descanso Gardens to the wildlife-honoring glittering fun at GLAZA’s Zoo Lights, there’s a light exhibition to help you get your glow on.

Enchanted Forest of Light

At Descanso Gardens in La Canada Flintridge, a series of beautiful installations create moody, highly spiritual settings throughout the gardens come nightfall.

Some offer interactive experiences – kids and adults alike can create musical notes and change colors at the Symphony of Trees, and adjust light colors by spinning at handle at lakefront Lightwaves section. Other areas are more quietly elegaic, beautifully alight set pieces that stir the imagination.

Some resemble stained glass, as does Tom Fruin’s Camouflage House reflecting on Mulberry Pond; others offer a radiant new take on a public park space with illuminated benches and the Luminous Lawn by Jen Lewin that changes color as you walk its path.

Strolling the Enchanted Forest is magical, slightly surreal, and yes, enchanting.

The one-mile walk takes you past thousands of glowing, color shifting tulips…

past HYBYCOZO’s delicate spinning art shapes casting patterned shadows in the Rose Garden…

and through the Garden of Good Fortune, a lustrous, red-lantern-lit nighttime view of the Japanese Garden.

There are ten enchanting exhibition sections in all; hot chocolate, churros, cocktails, and even full meals (with reservations) are available. The exhibition runs through January 5th. For tickets, click here.

Sensorio Field of Light

Located in a rolling field in Paso Robles, a 3.5 hour drive from LA, Bruce Munro’s lush 15-acre light show is absolutely captivating and well worth the journey. Pro-tip – arrive just before sunset if you can, to take in the transition from dusk to fully illuminated 1.5-mile loop trail.

The installation is a sculptural composition as well as a light experience, with over 58,800 stemmed spheres lit by fiber-optics creating subtly realistic glowing blooms powered by solar energy. A true artwork, the isolated setting – we saw stars and a rising moon – adds to the wonder.

It’s a transcendent and dream-like experience; dark solitary trees stand like sentinels, and the lights are beautifully colored but muted in intensity, like real flowers infused with light.

It’s a little like walking on another planet – or fully appreciating the beauty of this one, senses heightened.

Food trucks offer tasty local eats and beverages including regional wines and beers; a picnic area separate from the light path allows dining and relaxing while live acoustic musicians play.

For tickets, click here; the exhibition closes in mid-January.

GLAZA Zoo Lights

Lions and tigers and bears oh my! glowing ones in mosaic patterns; a light tunnel that dazzles and twists; thousands of tiny dancing green firefly light dots; an illuminated water show. Kids and adults alike enjoy the luminous, animal-themed displays.

The exhibition has been delighting all ages since 2014, and each year a fresh new element appears. Santa, and the zoo’s antique carousel are, however, constants.

Glowing and charming animals welcome visitors past large-scale illuminated snowflakes, a silver and purple disco ball forest, a herd of animated elephants, and the concluding attraction on a winding path through the main walkways of the zoo, a twinkling tunnel filled with glittering, crystaline color.

Lavender and blue glowing butterflies and a stroll through the nocturnal reptile lair add to the joyful experience. A family New Year’s Eve event at Zoo Lights is offered this year, too. The event runs through January 6th, for tickets, click here.

So, which nighttime light art experience should you choose? The best answer is… all of them.

Genie Davis; photos: Genie Davis; Jack Burke

Zoo Lights: Dazzling Displays and Nocturnal Creatures

Posted on November 28, 2017November 27, 2017 by Diversions LA

The Los Angeles Zoo’s now-traditional, always dazzling holiday offering, Zoo Lights, is back through January 7th. With live reindeer, a beautifully decorated Santa stop on select dates, and GLAZA’s opulent carousel to ride, this is a family fest that shouldn’t be missed.

Above, a new LED-lit tree at the Zoo Lights entrance.

This year, tots in tow really got into the act, dancing to the holiday music, saying “Wow” to the lustrous display.

Favorite sections of the show return this year, such as the purple lights and disco balls, the pink flamingos, the almost other-worldly green and orange ornaments with sparkling green lights dancing over the ramp that visitors can use instead of steps to enter the zoo.

Awarded USA Today’s “10 Best Zoo Lights” honors in 2015 and 2016 and nominated again this year, new features include a musical holiday tree, a re-designed water show, and a beautiful Northern Lights series of animal constellations.

The finale – after passing through a more-dazzling-than-ever glittering tunnel, replaces the tribute to Hollywood visuals with a new Wild Wonderland that highlights endangered and vulnerable animal species. Faux snow also falls in a fun dance area which every small child we saw was absolutely thrilled by.

The ceiling of the reptile house, open for visitors to explore the exhibits, is more decorated than ever, too.

As to the living creatures at the zoo, along with amphibians basking in the warm light of the reptile exhibit, there’s a lovely aquarium display. Outside, swans sail and meerkats pop up for nocturnal views.

A docent passed a set of shed-antlers from the reindeer, offering kids and adults alike a chance to touch these as well as watching Santa’s friends in their enclosure.

For more information and tickets, click here.

The L.A. Zoo is located at 5333 Zoo Dr. in Los Angeles.

Genie Davis; photos Jack Burke

Roaring Good Fun Lights Up the LA Zoo

Posted on December 20, 2016December 23, 2016 by Diversions LA

Now through January 8th, join the roar and wonder of lights at L.A. Zoo Lights. The Los Angeles Zoo’s now-traditional, always dazzling holiday offering is a justifiably popular replacement for the DWP Holiday Light Festival, a drive through that once called Griffith Park home.

The Zoo display is a delightful crowd pleaser, with a cheerful color palette, a rain forest canopy, recycled water bottles recreated as illuminated frogs – all fantastic fun for all ages. Adults, babies in strollers – grab a churro or a hot chocolate or cocktail and enjoy.

Silver birds soar through one of our favorite sections, all purple lights and shimmering mirrored disco balls.

Flamingos as lithe as pink musical notes hop; neon meerkats dazzle.

Entering along a path lit by large glowing holiday ornaments sets the stage for what’s to come, an animal-centric, whimsical display of illuminated critters.

In a new and more easily viewable location this year are crowd-favorites like elephant statues illuminated with a changing pattern of designs from Christmas sweaters to sparkling lights to tribal markings. Santa and his live reindeer continue to charm children.

Below, LAIR

The now-open LAIR reptile house makes a fascinating stop and a good way to step out of chilly night air. Friendly docents explain what these nocturnal critters do.

Around the corner an even more spectacular water and light show this year runs in fifteen minute intervals, creating glowing surreal images out of the mist.

Palm trees become multi-colored and fanciful, a parade of Christmas trees vies for attention with alligators and rhinos, and there are tunnels of lights leading into and out of the Hollywood scene that concludes the exhibit, with a Hollywood-premiere red carpet, and illuminated images of the Hollywood Bowl, freeways, and Capitol records.

Two hours allows for a leisurely look and a quick cup of cocoa, stay longer to visit Santa.

L.A. Zoo Lights runs 7 days a week through January 8th, from 6 to 10 p.m. , closed December 24 and 25. Don’t miss the Family New Year’s Eve celebration, with express entry to L.A. Zoo Lights, a dinner buffet with soft drinks and dessert, a carousel ride, games, DJ dance party, and live broadcast of the Times Square ball drop.

More details and tickets can be found here. The L.A. Zoo is located at 5333 Zoo Dr. in Los Angeles.

Genie Davis; photos Genie Davis, Jack Burke

Sex and the City Zoo: GLAZA Informs and Entertains

Posted on March 16, 2016March 14, 2016 by Diversions LA

You won’t find Carrie Bradshaw hanging out at Sex and the City Zoo, but maybe she should give it a whirl, and learn about the mating habits of species besides her own.

At Sex and the City Zoo, a charming and informative Valentine’s Weekend event at the Los Angeles Zoo, GLAZA once again shows an enormous capacity for the expansion of its educational offerings, served up with a heaping dose of fun.

The event began with a dessert buffet and wine served in the museum’s courtyard. There were also adorable stuffed animal zoo gift baskets available to purchase to support zoo conservation efforts.

While guests mixed and mingled, zoo staff circulated bearing a touchable Angolan Python, an ‘ooh and ahh’ worthy cute sugar glider, and a Hawaiian owl named Paula who came to Los Angeles as a stowaway on a naval ship.

Once visiting and noshing ended, guests moved into the zoo’s comfortable auditorium for a lively talk by chief curator Beth Schaefer. Here the audience laughed, learned, and groaned over animal mating rituals.

The male octopus disguises itself as a female in order to go undetected and avoid being devoured; bees sometimes have sex mid-air, bower birds woo their mates by building elaborate bowers that include found objects from car keys to soda straws. Male ostriches are supremely helpful with incubating eggs and watching over babies, and also engage in elaborate mating dances. And, well may they dance: most male birds do not have penises – the theory being such an appendage would adversely affect flight dynamics. But ostriches do, and also ducks. Ah, but ducks – well. Apparently most duck sexual behavior is not consensual, and male ducks lose their genitalia after they mate – growing a new one prior to each mating period. Um. Yes. That will teach them.

From learning about the great apes interest in oral copulation to the zoo’s success story for reproduction in endangered species like prong horn antelope and condors, this was a highly entertaining and memorable evening. Attendees could also opt to extend it with an elegant dinner set up on zoo grounds following the talk.

We say: stay alert to other special occasion zoo events: from the holiday festival of Zoo Lights to new children’s programs that allow kids to pet a hippo, and fascinating presentations like these – there’s plenty that’s new and fun to do at the zoo. Yes, the rhymes are intentional.

So…how about those ducks?

Genie Davis; All Photos by Jack Burke

Stevie Love October 30, 2024 at 8:52 am on Visionary Delight: The Images of Carl Baratta – A World in Both Plein Air and Fantastical LandscapesThanks for this, Genie!
JJ October 22, 2024 at 10:23 am on Carved Slices Up Artistic Halloween Fun at Descanso GardensSo wonderful to experience another fun adventure through your writing and photos!
Lori Markman September 22, 2024 at 7:37 pm on Yoko Ono: Music of the MindI really liked your article. It made me want to see the exhibit.
Catherine L. Ruane September 21, 2024 at 12:42 pm on Yoko Ono: Music of the MindAmazing review/art history essay. Thank you Nancy.
Cathy Breslaw September 21, 2024 at 8:22 am on Yoko Ono: Music of the MindNice article Nancy, Cathy Breslaw