Even though I created it, this hill of little ferns and strange trees makes me want to see what’s on the other side. I’m busy replenishing my Etsy inventory after last Saturday’s trip to the Artisan’s Market at Lippett Park in Providence. Will miss next week’s market and return on June 29th.
My stock of interesting pressed foliage is growing so fast it’s hard to know what to play with next.
I use Ralph Waldo Emerson quotations (and those of other wise men and women) in many of my botanical pieces. A lovely woman I met today at the Providence Artisan’s Market suggested I use this one from the great Massachusetts sage. While enhancing it with botanicals may prove a challenge — the quote is too long to repeat many times in a legible font — it brought tears to my eyes so it must happen!
“To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest citizens and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give of one’s self; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived—this is to have succeeded.”
Here’s an example of literature as foundation for my work:
A while back I made one of these little dioramas that looks to me like a photograph I might have taken back in my landscape painting days. The bottom is layered, as nature would be with growth including dill and a sprig of new-growth andromeda — as nature would not be, but you get the idea. The central focus is on newly unfurled spring ferns. There are overhanging ‘branches’ of bleeding heart and what sky doesn’t need an etoile? Now that I’ve put this little piece together, I’m regretting that I harvested so few ferns at this stage of development. I love the sparseness of them but I guess I’ll have to wait until next spring to reap the benefits of that experience. All varieties of my ferns are now either fully open and robust or getting there fast.
This will probably be the last new piece to be packed up and headed to the Providence Artisan’s Market at Lippett Park this Saturday. The experts tell us the weather will be perfect!
I don’t know what it is about graph paper, but I’ve always loved it. In school, I used it for note-taking. It’s also great when you hit a wall trying to solve the Times acrostic puzzle and need to start from scratch. So why not use a graph paper design to lay out some pretty foliage? I started with some individual fronds from my giant ferns and added some more delicate specimens to balance out the composition. They include Sweet Woodruff, new growth Andromeda and a single sprig of Candytuft.
I have an unlimited supply of these perfect little whorls of Sweet Woodruff, but perfection can be boring. Everyone sees something else in abstract art and probably in plants as well. In this case, I see Laugh-In and Volkswagon Busses. I love the rich color of the Sweet Potato Vine. Since my garden is shady, I usually choose the vivid green variety better to emerge from the shadows, but now that I know how nicely the deep purple dries, I’ll have to bend the rules a bit more this season.
For my latest pressed botanical, I used some asymmetrical whorls of leaves from my Sweet Woodruff and added miniature ivy. I like the juxtaposition of soft and severe shapes. For the background, I chose some soft blues and mild rather than dramatic contrast in the alternating colors. This is a continuation of a series I did with oranges, golds, and reds and featuring the variegated leaves from my Euonymus shrubs. See the others in my Etsy shop.
A few posts ago, I showed the same graphic in different colors. That version was cropped and used dill as a filler to drape over the edges of the base. This time, I centered the full image, changed the color scheme and fashioned some minimalist “flowers” out of Roses, Sweet Woodruff, and Ivy. I have yet a third one in the works in some colors that will jump out of the frame. Can’t wait to design the contents of the vase.
I’m not sure why these little pairings remind me of daggers today. The last time I arranged ivy in this way, I called it a bow and used it to tie off a pretty double-tipped frond of ferns.
I’ve been playing a lot with very organized foliage so thought it might be time for a return to a little craziness. This is also the first time I can remember mixing my Mexican Feathergrass with other plants. Some days you just have to go for it. I used a little simple origami to make trumpets out of rose petals and put them on dried twigs from a shrub that originally looked pretty much like this except without transplanted flowers. if you haven’t already noticed, there are no rules. See this and dozens more at my Etsy shop or, better still, see the work in person at The Art of Craft in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 11th (the day before Mother’s Day)
This is the last, for a while, in my series of collages made with pressed rose petals. I substituted ivy for the sepal of my ersatz roses and placed each one in a pastel yellow oval. A cross between, floral art and deviled eggs? I still have some Mexican Feather Grass in my inventory. Maybe that will be next on my agenda for right-side brainstorming. Is there such a thing?
My Stonington Garden 
