Umlauf Sculpture Garden

I've been in Austin for almost twenty years and I never went to this well-known sculpture garden until some friends came into town and we were looking for something to do while walking around downtown. I've never been a huge fan of art. I love music and artsy activities are some of the best experiences in life. But each person gets into that in their own way and visual arts have limited appeal to me. Stories in short TV series are great for me as well, Music and stories give me incredible experiences in my heart and soul, and maybe my mind too. These sculptures wouldn't have moved me in any surroundings. The "garden" affect didn't help because the statues seemed to be made straight out of an industrial plant with all the emotion of a worker who hates their job in the factory. One friend suggested they resembled Nazi statues. Umlauf grew up in America and taught at UT which means he could have been a fascist but its unlikely. Still there's something coldly authoritarian in their appearance and the medium of the metal and stone artwork. Like I said to each their own when it comes to art but it seems like another example of the fakery of Austin. When we first arrived and paid to get in the person working the cash register asked where we were from and we told her. Me from Austin and friends from Tennessee. I must have made some sarcastic remark which elicited her response that Austin was great but not really the rest of the state. Typical liberal Austin arrogance which I can't stand.