Garden Studies: Part 1

 GARDEN STUDIES. This series is a work in progress.  A short time ago my wife and I bought a house. The former owner was an elderly woman who was a master gardner. Everyday I see plants in our small backyard that I've never seen before...not your typical garden plants, or even ones I see at large garden centers when my wife needs something from those places,  or plants we see hiking in parks in rural areas of nothern Ohio. Seeing those plants grow and the insect life, and dealing with various garden tasks pruning, weeds, animals, etc., all become an interestiong visual mix, a microcosm,  and opportunity for learning in a broader sence .   “When you paint Spring, do not paint willows, plums, peaches, or apricots, but just paint Spring. To paint willows, plums, peaches, or apricots is to paint willows, plums, peaches, or apricots - it is not yet painting Spring.” - Japanese Zen master Eihei Dogen (1200 -1253)

My wife and I now live in Cleveland Heights. The subject of a garden has been painted many

times by artists. Now that my wife and I own a house with a garden I want to investigate the

garden from all possible angles, not just one ideal frozen moment with, for example, flowers in

full bloom. What I mean about that is suggesting something more akin

to what I consider the full story of a garden. That to me means seeing a garden with one eye on

the outside world, in this case the garden, and one eye on the inner world that is suggested to

me.  The full story to me includes things such as the physical part, the tools working, digging,

getting your hands dirty, coming across inhabitants of the underground life, encountering

 garden codependent insects, and garden intruders seen or only hinted at with traces or clues,

unknown and unexpected plants appearing, flowers, weeds, vines, the nocturnal life, and  most

importantly the unseen energy of the day and the night guiding and manipulating  plants.  I

wanted to approach the subject of the garden like a cinematographer, and from an unrestrained

attitude and perspective with a number of different suggested inner and outer perspectives,

sometime focusing in at one point or moment and sometimes multiple perspectives in the same

painting, a garden changes day by day and even moment by moment, but the more significant

changes happen not in the garden, but in the mind of the viewer and in his perception of the

garden.