EXPRESSING CREATIVITY: the Garden

[Cooperix]

(This post is the first in a series titled EXPRESSING CREATIVITY. So please stay tuned.)

EXPRESSING CREATIVITY: The Garden

My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece. –Claude Monet

-[F]or me the garden is one of the most satisfying aspect of my life. Its lessons are multitudinous and its rewards unlimited. Its offer of retreat and a place for solitude is a powerful pull, as is the solitude and retreat of my art studio. I try to carry its beauty and simplicity into my art work space, not in the sense that I want to reproduce it, paint it, reconstruct it, but in the sense that I want to be affected by its powerful grip, its ability to make me focus as nothing in my life has ever made me focus. I want to feel the same passion for my art as I do for my garden. I want to have the same patience there that I have learned to have in the garden, and I strive for the continuity that nature provides and the joy. I want to learn from its message of impermanence and death, as well as its miracle of life…- (modified a bit from a museum talk I gave in the early 90s.)

I use garden in my artwork.

Plants are a tangible connection to earth, environment, regeneration, fertility and sustainability. The miracle of a tiny seed, holding life force within its hard shell fascinates; I draw seeds, or plant them for installations. I use the plant matter to make paper. I draw roots, I draw grasses, I grow gardens.

http://annecooperstudio.com/installations.html

http://annecooperstudio.com/installations%20two.html

http://annecooperstudio.com/twoD.html

There are many who do not have an outdoor space to garden, and I realize I am very lucky to have a ½ acre yard. A garden can be large (see Kotei’s post below) or as tiny as one geranium or a tomato plant in a pot. It is all life, and growth. All a miracle as far as I am concerned. You can grow food, or flowers, or trees or any botanical that you can make flourish with love, attention, soil, water and light. Even though I use the symbols of garden in my artwork, the garden stands alone as a creative venture, a collaboration between me and nature. Meitou offers more gardening suggestions below.

Tell us about your garden, and if you aren’t shy show us your garden, big or small. We need inspiration at this time of introspection and solitude.
It is spring in the northern hemisphere, perfect for planting, fall in the southern, time for harvesting. Please let us hear from you.
We are honored to have Kotei share his magical garden with us. His post follows this one.

And now Meitou's prompt

Expressing Creativity Prompt 1 – The Garden

Mary Mary quite contrary
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells
And pretty maids all in a row.

English Nursery Rhyme origin unknown.

We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden.

Woodstock - Joni Mitchell

Welcome to a new Art Circle project!

How does your garden grow? Are there cockle shells? Is it stardust, golden? Is it a pot of basil on a windowsill? A silk orchid, a small tray of sand? Is it perhaps in your mind, or an image on your wall?

We are presenting here a description of Kotei's beautiful garden, a true labour of love, homage to Zen and the Japanese Garden tradition and a complete but ever involving expression of creativity. But a garden can take many forms – both physical and conceptual. It can be practical and productive, or pure decoration. It can be outside of your door or a private hideaway at the bottom of your garden. It can be made up of real living plants, but equally it can be paper, wood, synthetic. It can be a vast public space or a table in the corner of a room. It can be on a mountain, or even under water. However your garden grows, it represents a connection between yourself and nature, yourself and your creativity, yourself and your imagination.

In what we see as a developing and organic new project, this first prompt asks you to bring here images or words in response to the question 'How does your garden grow?'
I've kept this initial prompt deliberately short and ambiguous – show us what a garden means to you - a work in progress, a poem, a song a painting or drawing of your own or that you admire, or by another artist. Build, shape, create. Show us perhaps some seeds just planted, emerging seedlings, a beloved indoor plant. A collage, fabric work, upcycling.

Interpret this first prompt in a way that expresses your creativity – and have fun!

Gassho and happy gardening

Anne and Meitou

we both sat today

[Cooperix]

FROM KOTEI

THE GARDEN AND ME

Somehow it feels wrong saying “This is my garden“.
“I am one of the integral parts of this garden“, might be more accurate.
The garden shaped me at least as much as I shaped it.

I was helping a friend plant some large trees from his nursery in one of the local botanical gardens
The botanical garden was closed to the public when I was there, early one morning in spring. My job was driving one of the tree trucks and supervising the unloading. After finishing, I walked through the different parts of the garden and sat down by a pond in the Japanese section. Not knowing details about sitting Zazen, I think I did something like zazen that day.

I know, Japanese gardens are not necessarily about practicing Zazen, although you can find a large flat rock called “Zazen stone“ in some. This was my personal moment that, many years later, brought me here, sitting Zazen, calling myself “Kotei“, the Old Garden.

I was told that when I was barely able to walk, I dug my way through the soil of my grandfather’s garden, nibbling at potatoes and carrots and staring at insects, that stared back at me. In later years I helped with planting, caring, harvesting this garden. My source of income during school years was newspaper delivery and mowing lawns and pulling weeds in the gardens of my customers. I volunteered for conservation work in forests and nearby rivers and I am still caring about the renaturation of some former gravel pits.

After years of a career in the big city, keeping myself sane with working in the forest and helping my above-mentioned friend with his horticulture company from time to time, I was finally able to return to suburbia, starting my own garden. It tripled its size after some years (the neighboring property was for sale). Living with such a garden is a never-ending project. I attracted some attention with my garden, and I am doing occasional workshops with customers and landscape architects as well as help planning and implementing gardens.

Why is there such a strong emotional reaction to some gardens?
What is it that makes me feel so calm and one with everything when experiencing the garden?
What is the connection?

This is what I’m exploring.

Growing vegetables and herbs… touching the earth, seeding, growing, fertilizing, cultivating, harvesting, eating, composting the leftovers. There is a certain fulfillment in this, being part of the eternal cycle of all things. Growth and decay - becoming and passing away. I am finding this in ornamental gardening, too.

But I am also searching for something different.

Nature is not necessarily a peaceful and forgiving place, especially out in the forest when it gets dark, far away from the well-maintained paths.
Basic emotions, before thinking, seem to be guiding away from the danger, towards safety. Dense forest, damp air, muted sounds and light, getting dark. Creepy feeling in the neck from the direction where the forest gets even more dark and dense. Unease… even fear… need to get out of here…
One hears a murmuring stream from a certain direction, the forest is less dense, and a bit of light is breaking through the treetops. Feeling drawn towards it… Heading in that direction, wiggling through some plants, breaking through the bushes… Breathing… feeling space and a bit freedom. Then looking over a clearing. A small pond. Warm sun. Catching a view down the hill into the far distance.
Warmth… Relaxation… Vista
Watching the little brook splashing through some stones and gravel. Refreshing. Playful.
Some stable boulders looking out of the soil. Overhanging trees, some round bushes, stable forms.
Stability. Rest.

Beauty. A place, where the animal mind comes to a rest. Where the triggers of survival fade and those of relaxation and contentment predominate. Here there is room for a poetic, playful state of mind.
I believe that the fulfilling, peaceful, awestruck emotion that comes with recognizing Beauty has its origin in something like the above.
It arises, telling you that something is really OK. That the searching has an end. You arrived. Its OK to rest, OK to settle.

This is part of what I am trying to accomplish with my garden(s) and what I think Japanese gardens are about, too. Simplifying the elements, still effective in achieving that awestruck, peaceful, poetic state of mind. Finding the basic form and layout as a kind of worship of our origin in nature. A deep connection of our unconscious with the world around.

Joining nature and culture for me is an important element of a garden, too. Using human made objects, accenting nature and provoking thoughts. Admiring sun through shadows, the rain through shelter and gravel that changes colour when wet and a pond for watching the drops. Creating upwards bent surfaces where the falling snow forms neat cushions. Planting bamboo and grasses and hanging a very small summer-bell… Hearing the wind and watching… Witnessing the elements and seasons.

Making paths that invite one into the garden and guide the visitor.

Age - Usage of natural material that ages and weathers, and fits into nature. - bamboo fences - forming plants so they look old. Accenting some dead branches of trees, not removing them.

Balance vs. Symmetry - Natural form and distribution of items, balanced, but not symmetrical

History - Change - Reusing historical material

Usefulness - Integrating the things I want to do outside in all this - Bees - Bonsai - Telescope (Moon watching platform)

Metaphors through items - Evoking emotions, poetic thoughts

Originally, I didn’t want too many Japanese items, like lanterns, but as they fell out of other projects here and there, I now have some. One of the ideas about this garden was that I’d try making as much as possible out of the things as they are and are readily available. I use the fine slate plates, horizontally stacked forming black walls, that are from the roof of the house which I demolished for making room for the pond. A large handmade granite water basin was once an electrolysis basin from a metalworking company. It was on its way into the shredder.

In a nutshell, bonsai is similar to what I’ve discussed above. The tree is shaped in a way that it looks natural, old and expresses an emotion. And it’s joined with a ceramic planter.

The 700 tons of granite boulders used in this part of the garden were pushed by the last glacier that came through this area and collected over years by a horticultural company that I am friendly with. They needed to clear the land where the stones were stored. Luckily around that time, I was building this garden. One of the Japanese looking stone lanterns and some suiseki were made from these stones, too.
The oak for the garden-building is from a wonderful little family sawmill I visited in Austria.
The little sandstone devil-head in the moss is from a church in Berlin and came down as the church, used as a shelter, was destroyed by an allied bomb near the end of WWII. The blue flower in front of it is a myosotis, a forget-me-not. The little devil-head tells a koan.

Nearly everything is telling a story.

Practicing Samu in the garden fits extremely well into the overall idea. Experiencing the seasons and observing the cycles of the plants and watching the many animals in this garden and between the large trees of the nearby forest is really wonderful. Witnessing the hundreds of toads that come every spring and the ten thousand that leave some weeks later into the forest is part of the rich experience.

And so much more.

Thanks for reading.
Deep bows,
Kotei


Pictures?
Usually, I don’t take pictures - because of Time.
Not because I don’t have the time, but because the garden’s different features show at different times.
Looking at a picture limits my impression to this one moment in the serial view of events.
Somehow direct experience does not and makes time something different.


P.S. Kotei's images are in following posts.

[Kotei]

Thank you for posting, Anne and Meitou.

As there are only 4 image links in one posting allowed, I'll post more than one reply.
Please let me know if this is too much and I will delete those.









Gassho,
Kotei sat/lah today.

[Kotei]

Next pictures:









Gassho,
Kotei sat/lah today.

[Kotei]

Aaand the rest:





A short phone video I took end of march, still waiting for spring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw7fGh-NqsU

Gassho,
Kotei sat/lah today.

[Doshin]

Thank you Anne, Meitou and Kotei.

Such beauty. A place to meditate. A place to appreciate. You are artist of the natural

How does your garden grow?.....my vision was to blend the area around my home into the surrounding native landscape. For 20 years I planted species native to the area and allowed natural recolonization after construction of our home was completed. My goal was to be part of the natural landscape and invite wildlife to continue to share this space. I did emphasize flowering species for pollinators and aesthetics. But also included other species (Agaves, Ocotillos, Yuccas and shrubs) for structural habitat diversity. My yard is an extension of my deep connection to the natural world. An effort to minimize my impact. A place to meditate and a place to appreciate the diversity of life. To give back.

***Opps...I made a 30 second video of the yard but now unable to upload. My technical understanding failed. So my post concludes without an image! I will try to obtain photos soon.

I have followed your Art Circle but until the focus turned to gardens I had nothing to contribute.

Doshin
St

[Ryudo]

Gassho/SatToday

[Cooperix]

Doshin,
We'd love to see the video (me especially, as you are close by in this magically beautiful state) if you can manage to upload it. I moved here years ago from the semi tropics of Houston, to the arid mountainous beauty of NM. Gardening is a very different action here. Stark and challenging, but as always working with the environment you live in makes for great rewards. We'd all enjoy seeing your garden.

Morning bows
Anne

~lahst~

[Doshin]

Doshin,
We'd love to see the video (me especially, as you are close by in this magically beautiful state) if you can manage to upload it. I moved here years ago from the semi tropics of Houston, to the arid mountainous beauty of NM. Gardening is a very different action here. Stark and challenging, but as always working with the environment you live in makes for great rewards. We'd all enjoy seeing your garden.

Morning bows
Anne

~lahst~

Maybe Kotei can give some technical advice to me. I filmed it on my Android Phone but when I tried to post here on the forum I got a message about not recognizing the file (or something like that). In the past I have posted videos from the phone to social media sites but not here.

Thanks Kotei for any help you can offer.

Doshin
St

[Kotei]

Hello Doshin,

I think the forum software does not recognise the video file itself.
I uploaded the video to my Youtube account and then just put the link to it in the forum post.

I am curious about your garden, too.
Just thought about you some days ago, as I came across that strange "slow-worm"? Anguis fragilis in the garden.
Sand lizards on the rocks ( Lacerta agilis ) and Ring snakes ( Natrix natrix ) hunting frogs in the pond are regular visitors, but that was the first time with the Anguis in the garden.

Gassho,
Kotei sat/lah today.

[Doshin]

Hello Doshin,

I think the forum software does not recognise the video file itself.
I uploaded the video to my Youtube account and then just put the link to it in the forum post.

I am curious about your garden, too.
Just thought about you some days ago, as I came across that strange "slow-worm"? Anguis fragilis in the garden.
Sand lizards on the rocks ( Lacerta agilis ) and Ring snakes ( Natrix natrix ) hunting frogs in the pond are regular visitors, but that was the first time with the Anguis in the garden.

Gassho,
Kotei sat/lah today.

Thanks Kotei. I will learn how to upload to YouTube. Those herps, I am familiar with each genus though not the specific species you have. Except I may have seen Lacerta frigilliswhile in Europe years ago. As you probably know the Slow Worm is actually a Legless Lizard. We have a couple of species of legless lizards in North America too. Interesting that in reptiles “legless” evolved in snakes and a few species of lizards.

Doshin
St

[Doshin]

Working on video upload but here is part of the garden. Photos taken preciously. In first photo, To the left is a solid rock ridge from which I moved some of the rocks into the garden as were there before leveling the site for construction. Mountain lions, bobcats, foxes, deer, white collared peccaries, birds and many reptiles come into this space. Some for water in a small pond we put here (an elevated rubber stock tank with emergent aquatic plants). As mentioned the majority of vegetation is native to area. I chose flowers with differing season so pollinators (bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, moths) have food from March to October.

80844385-E3CD-4FF4-84B3-CCE21A47C7D7.jpeg


The evening shot shows transition into adjacent habitat and ridge

575B1650-7B0C-4FF0-B873-130711F74D4B.jpeg

One of the pollinators on a native Claret Cup Cactus

254F5BFB-F470-4A44-9256-A358535A30B3.jpeg

The west side of yard grades into a grassland. Species in foreground were planted or recolonized.

AC7CBA03-FF53-42CF-A5AF-CD4D39FEAF20.jpeg

White Collared Peccary (also locally known as Javelina) visiting yard. They come frequently sometimes a dozen. They mainly feed on bird seed spilt from the feeders and for water. However a few times they dug up some of my plants. I asked them to not do that

3EA39ABF-172C-40D1-A965-8DD2A4233262.jpeg





Doshin
St

[Cooperix]

Doshin,

Stunning sky, land, landscaping and photos! Looks like you back up to BLM or National forest land. Not sure where you are, close to Silver City? or Deming?
Thanks for sharing. A testament of how beautiful the desert is in its arid and vast landscapes, open clear sky and gnarly population of amazing creatures.

Also such a fine sharp contrast to Kotei's scrumptiously lush, sheltered and wet gardens. The full spectrum of possibilities on this amazing planet.

Gassho
Anne

~lahst~

[Kotei]

Doshin,
fascinating, how your house and garden merges with the open landscape.
It seem like a celebration, a deep bow to nature.

Gassho,
Kotei sat/lah today.

[Shoki]

Doshin,
Those are nice images in an environment that I would say is quite challenging to visualize, design and grow things. I am an avid gardener. I'd say a bit obsessed. You know those thoughts that jump into your mind during zazen? Mine usually have to do with what I'm going to do once I get out in the garden.

Why am I this way? I'd say after all these years of experiencing things, to just get back in the dirt, compost, bugs, flowers, weeds, sun, rain, plants is just the most natural, basic thing to do. Oh, that and sitting zazen. But they're really both the same thing.

Gassho
StLAH
James