You may have read about artist Anne Patterson’s new installation piece at the Ringling Museum of Art, Pathless Woods, in our November season preview feature. Now, with the immersive work opening to the public Nov. 4 at the museum’s brand-new Keith D. and Linda L. Monda Gallery, is a good time to take a quick sneak peek at Patterson’s evocative creation.

Patterson has spent the past three weeks installing Pathless Woods, with the help of about 50 volunteers and FSU grad students to dangle from the ceiling the hundreds of colorful ribbons that form the “woods” in the gallery space. As visitors make their way through the installation’s spectrum of red, green and blue, using their hands to move ribbons aside, the sensation, she says, is one of “swimming through color.”

Pathless Woods also incorporates sometimes dramatic music by composer Michael Gandalfi, projection designs by frequent Patterson collaborator Adam Larsen, and, on the Ringling’s Thursday evening hours only, a special scent summoning up the fresh, clean air of pine woods.

While Pathless Woods is a unique, site-specific project, earlier Patterson installations, such as State of Grace at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, provide glimpses for Patterson into how her work strikes the viewer. Although she prefers to let each person interact with and interpret the work in his or her own way, the artist admits, “It’s really a trip to watch the people coming in.”

 Pathless Woods will be on view through May in the new Monday gallery. For more information, visit ringling.org.

 Video by Adam Larsen