Enchanted Forest of Light at Descanso Gardens

While we were in Los Angeles, we attended a magical event called "Enchanted Forest of Light" at Descanso Gardens.  Enchanted Forest of Light is an interactive, nighttime experience, featuring a one-mile walk through a variety of lighting experiences in Descanso Gardens.  Given the time difference between East Coast and West Coast, I wasn't sure if my little guy was going to make it, but he was a trooper and danced through the whole thing, deigning to ride in the stroller only at the end.  (And fell asleep in the car almost immediately.)  Here's a peek at some of the beautiful things we saw:

My favorite thing on the walk was the stained glass houses by artist Tom Fruin.  He has an instagram where you can see some of his process.

I only took photos of two of the houses, but there were a dozen of them displayed in this one area. It was so magical.

I also really loved the super cool geometric installation by HYBYCOZO.  HYBYCOZO is the collaborative studio of Serge Beaulieu and Yelena Filipchuk. The work consists of larger than life geometric sculptures, often with patterns and textures that draw on inspirations from mathematics, science, and natural phenomena. Their works celebrate the inherent beauty of geometric form and pattern, and compose them in ways that harmonize the experience of sculpture, light, and shadow. HYBYCOZO is short for The Hyperspace Bypass Construction Zone and represents the artists ongoing journey investigating the myriad dimensions of geometry.  And they post lots of super gorgeous photos to their instagram account.

One of the most magical things we saw was an accident of circumstance.  The night we went to Descanso Gardens, it was rainy and misty.  Add all the lights to that and you get rainbows.  Check out these rainbow shadows:

If you look closely, you can see the shadow of my hand in the photo above.

In many ways, this experience reminded me of what the artist Christo does.  He takes well known objects and spaces and transforms the way you see them -- usually through the use of brightly colored cloth.  In this case, light and sound was used to transform a forest into something enchanted.

The photos simply cannot capture how they managed to transform these gardens through sound and light.  You can see a bit more of the magic in this video from Descanso Gardens:

This is an annual event at Descanso Gardens.  If you ever get the chance to go, I highly recommend it!

Thanks for stopping by!