Category Archives: artists

holiday lull

Posted on December 27, 2013 by Denise

How are we all doing? Holding up okay? The first holiday is already a wrap, and we’re suspended smack in the middle of the countdown to the next, so resumption of routine is still a week away. (And happy holidays, … Continue reading →

Posted in artists, Occasional Daily Photo, photography | Tagged Abelardo Morell, Aloe bainesii, camera obscura, Euphorbia ingens, the Central Garden by Robert Irwin, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Views of Central Park | 2 Comments

Bernard Trainor’s Landprints

Posted on November 21, 2013 by Denise

Ages and ages ago (last July in fact) a bunch of us garden bloggers visited gardens in Northern California at last summer’s meetup known as the Fling. For the temperate Bay Area, it was an incredibly hot day, and we … Continue reading →

Posted in artists, design | Tagged Australian plants, Bernard Trainor, California native plants, Garden Bloggers Fling 2013 San Francisco, Jason Liske, Landprints; The Landscape Designs of Bernard Trainor, Marion Brenner, Southern California Horticultural Society, Susan Heeger, Testa-Vought garden | 5 Comments

glass artist Amanda Dziedzic

Posted on November 11, 2013 by Denise

As someone who has had the same Vilmorin Andrieux prints of oversized vegetables in the kitchen since we moved in 20 years ago, I’ve always admired artists who respect vegetables. The Design Files recently did one of their signature, long-form … Continue reading →

Posted in artists, design | Tagged Amanda Dziedzic, Australian design, glass art, the design files, Vilmorin Andrieux prints | 4 Comments

Stanford’s New Guinea Sculpture Garden

Posted on October 20, 2013 by Denise

More updates from the Bay Area, this one from occasional AGO photographer and contributor MB Maher. I’ll let him tell this adventure in his own words: “Shirley Watts messaged me to keep my Wednesday evening open. And per her instructions, … Continue reading →

Posted in artists, garden visit, MB Maher, photography | Tagged MB Maher, Robert Pogue Harrison, Shirley Watts, Stanford University, The New Guinea Sculpture Garden at Stanford | 4 Comments

in the news

Posted on October 17, 2013 by Denise

Since the government shutdown, I’ve been checking in with The New York Times at an increasingly feverish pace, several times a day, (and doing little else, it seems), so it was in real time that the story on James Golden … Continue reading →

Posted in artists, clippings, design, garden travel, garden visit, MB Maher | Tagged Cindy McNatt, dirt du jour, Dustin Gimbel, James Golden, MB Maher, Michael Tortorello, non-secateur, Orange County Register, The Garden Conservancy Open Days, The New York Times, View From Federal Twist | 8 Comments

Natural Discourse: Culture & Cultivation 10/10/13

Posted on October 13, 2013 by Denise

What to make of this impulse to create gardens? Most of my ruminations are done leaning on a shovel, or moving a pot inches to the left and wondering why in the world it matters. One of the few constants … Continue reading →

Posted in artists, creatures, design, photography, science | Tagged Adolf Portmann, Alice Miceli, Cevan Forristt, David Rothenberg's "Survival of the Beautiful", Flora Grubb, Hannah Arendt, Margaret Morton, Marion Brenner, Mary Jo McConnell, Natural Discourse; Culture & Cultivation, Richard Turner, Robert Pogue Harrison, Roger Hangarter, Saxon Holt, Shirley Watts, The Chernobyl Project | 4 Comments

tithonia for Clarice Cliff

Posted on October 7, 2013 by Denise

I’m still cutting buckets of tithonia from the community garden plot and filling every vase in the house, even those I usually leave empty, like this museum reissue of a Clarice Cliff vase, the 20th century British ceramic artist famous … Continue reading →

Posted in artists, cut flowers, design | Tagged Bloomsbury, ceramics, Clarice Cliff, Tithonia rotundifolia | 1 Comment

seasonal bouquet project 10/1/13

Posted on October 1, 2013 by Denise

African basil, Persicaria orientalis, zinnias, tithonia, crithmum, autumn light and shadows, all wrapped up in a rutabaga vase for a Dutch still-life, abundance-of-summer effect. I should have grabbed a snail or two as bit players to slipperfoot up the side … Continue reading →

Posted in artists, cut flowers | Tagged African basil, Balthasar van der Ast, Crithmum maritimum, Persicaria orientalis, Seasonal Bouquet Project, Tithonia rotundifolia, Zinnia elegans | 8 Comments

Cevan Forristt

Posted on September 25, 2013 by Denise

My timid approach to incorporating a bit of the exotic in the garden got me thinking about gardens that boldly embrace the exotic, gardens that become a country wholly unlike the one in which they nominally reside. There’s always a … Continue reading →

Posted in artists, design, garden ornament, garden visit, MB Maher, pots and containers | Tagged Bay Area gardens, Cevan Forristt, Hortisexuals, ornament, stone, The Christian Science Monitor | 13 Comments

“Gardens: An Essay” by Robert Pogue Harrison (reposted from 10/7/11)

Posted on September 22, 2013 by Denise

I’m more than a little overexcited at the prospect of hearing Professor Harrison speak at the latest iteration of Natural Discourse entitled “Culture & Cultivation,” to be held October 10, 2013, in Berkeley, California. The previous Natural Discourse programs were … Continue reading →

Posted in artists, books, Department of Instruction, design, garden travel | Tagged "Gardens: An Essay on the Human Condition", "Natural Discourse", architect Julia Morgan, art, gardens, historic hotels, Natural Discourse: Culture & Cultivation 10/10/13, Robert Pogue Harrison, science, Shirley Watts, The Berkeley City Club, The New York Review of Books, UC Berkeley Botanical Garden, University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley | 5 Comments