Jason S. Brown and Elizabeth Scofield Sculpture

A blooming garden waves and flutters in the breezes outside the Knoxville Museum of Art.

The outdoor exhibition "BLOOM" stands in the museum's north garden through Aug. 1. Made of heavy-duty, synthetic nylon fabric and fiberglass poles, BLOOM is the creation of Knoxville artists (and husband and wife) Jason S. Brown and Elizabeth Scofield.

The outdoor exhibit is botanically inspired sculptures in bright colors. Sixteen-foot-tall blades of orange-red grass spike seven spots in the garden. Three bird-of-paradise-like creations include combs of red-orange fabric fanciful flowers. Giant magenta, purple and pink petals cluster in a kid-friendly exhibit that invites museum visitors to walk among the art.

"It is sort of fantastical," says Brown, an associate professor of sculpture at the University of Tennessee.

Brown and Scofield have created installations similar to BLOOM at the Bonnaroo music festival and the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville, N.C. BLOOM is their first outdoor exhibit in Knoxville.

The individual pieces of giant grass and huge petals range from 4 to 16 feet tall; they are made from the same heavy-duty outdoor material as flags or banners. It's not only colorful art but lightweight, portable sculpture.

Brown said the outdoor work concept grew after the artists worked in a 2005 residency about art in ecology in Oregon. That focus blends, he says, with their longtime interest in the "challenge of public art and its interaction with the public."