Today we said goodbye to the sculpture, "Women with Sheep (Three Women Three Sheep)" by Kiki Smith.  As is often the case with museums, only some of the art at LongHouse is in our permanent collection.  Other works are on loan, typically for one to two years, from galleries, museums, private collections and very often the artists themselves.  Even though we move artwork to different garden areas most every year, "Women with Sheep" remained nestled in our bed of pachysandra, in a peaceful slumber to the delight of guests that gazed upon them.  Children were especially fond of this piece, sometimes exclaiming how much they loved animals when they saw the sheep.  

We will miss this beautiful work but we know it will bring great joy to all those who see it at its next exhibition.

LongHouse truly is at the intersection of art and nature, as evidenced by this robin using one of the lambs as a perch!

One of the themes of Smith's work is the human condition in relationship to nature.

Here is a shot with all three women and all three sheep.  

 The softness of the pachysandra played well against these bronze sculptures.

"Women with Sheep" slumbered peacefully even after a snowfall.

We chose a warm and sunny day to do the de-installation.

Before removing the pieces from the garden, each sculpture was cleaned and checked for possible damage.

Josue Rojas (left) and Bonifacio Rojas carefully load the pieces on to a dolly to move them to the parking lot.

Meanwhile in the parking lot, Eduardo from Ray Smith and Associates off loaded the shipping crates.  The large wooden crates were carefully stored at Smith's facility in Southampton.  Ray Smith is our longtime Director of Horticulture.

The crates were stored with a protective covering while "Women with Sheep" was exhibited at LongHouse.

Associate Curator Wendy Van Deusen inspects each crate and matches up which piece goes in which crate.

The pieces are laid out and again checked for any damage while we put the crates in place.

These adjustable "feet" were what raised "Women and Sheep" off the ground to the proper height.  They were cleaned and wrapped in bubble wrap and put in their own box.

And speaking of feet, a little piece of green was found between the toes of one of the women and removed.

Each crate had photos and instructions on how to put each sculpture in place for safe transit.

Bonifacio puts protective material in place before Josue lowers the sculpture into the crate with straps attached to our Bobcat.

Once loaded into the crate, Executive Director Matko Tomicic inspects each piece a final time.

Two of the crates ready for pick up.  We are going to miss "Women with Sheep"! 

Here is Kiki Smith posing on one of the pieces during our Summer Benefit in 2015, where she was presented with the LongHouse Award.