Following paths can lead you to all sorts of places. Guess which one was our home for two weeks? Sorry, it's not the castle. Read the previous post to find out why.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Down the garden path
Following paths can lead you to all sorts of places. Guess which one was our home for two weeks? Sorry, it's not the castle. Read the previous post to find out why.
Reading a garden
In July I spent two weeks on the Birr Castle Demesne in
The 120 acres of cultivated land included: walkways, fernery, lakes, wildflower meadow and formal garden to name a few. The gardens are open to the public daily and there is a science centre and an exhibition centre on site. Our access to the gardens through a door in the wall from out Bothy property was a major bonus. Many mornings I could be found roaming the grounds with book and camera in hand. After two weeks I thoroughly documented every aspect I was interested in.
While exploring the garden, I used a viewing framework proposed by McIntosh in Gardens of the Gods – Myth, Magic and Meaning to guide my documentation of various aspects of the property. He contends that if one understands the "parts of speech' of a garden, it is actually possible to read a garden as one would read a text. Obviously, with my background in education and literacy development this whole notion was very intriguing.
I arrived back home with over a thousand photographs and a notebook full of observations and questions. This material is forming the backbone of my current series. I plan to create 16 mixed media paintings on board. At this point 6 are complete and 2 in process.
A new adventure
I'm very surprised that I've made the plunge into blogworld. I've decided to increase my internet presence and keep friends and followers up to date on what I am doing in my art, what I am reading , questioning, searching, and linking with. This will be a way to answer the question "What are you working on now?"
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