Friday, March 02, 2007

Imaginary Gardens

My last trip home for my step-father's funeral found us driving to West Texas. My favorite drive is from Dallas to Abilene and beyond. Weatherford, Mineral Wells and all the other small, quiet stops. The familiarity of it all, the smells, the towns, the signs, the highways and so many memories from a lifetime of making that trip.

Back to my story. On the drive back to Dallas, nearing Mineral Wells, I spied a grapevine bed on the side of the road. Slammed on the brakes, pulled in a junk store driveway, leaving a cloud of dust on Highway 20. We stayed there for a good hour talking to the old guy who was telling me he could not help himself from making stuff. He had lots of old-growth grapevine in the back of his property and he just wanted to make furniture with it. He was fascinating and it was an good hour spent with him. I wanted that bed, thought of renting a truck and driving it back to Seattle. The bed was $400, a steal and I saw this vision, my sketch, the minute I saw the bed.

The Flower Bed

I quickly made a illustrator rough to see it in color. Here is the description of my vision. The grapevine bed with a moss mattress, flower pillow, and a patchwork quilt made of different moss and small flowers. A water pitcher and glass hold dirt and fragrant shrubs instead of water. And a book has grass growing from the cover. Fireflies are circling the bed (this is achieved with light wire and flashing leds). Stepping stones and more moss on the ground. Maybe come slippers. {later} I forgot the most important element ... the patchwork quilt starts on the ground with moss and flowers and becomes the quilt working it's way to the bed.

I don't know what else would be going on, but this is the kind of magic I want to see at the Garden Show!



I had this little vision while I was walking around the garden show this year. An Upside-Down garden. Sorry these are so rough, but you get the idea. The flowers and grass would be above, hanging upside down, held together with chicken wire. Below would be a water feature, with water shooting straight lines of water up, like rain. Something round and white to sit on and take all of this in. I was thinking of white bean bags (would they get wet?) or maybe better, white, round, smooth carved rocks. To sit and watch it all.

upside garden rough

upside garden rough

Please do yourself a favor and click through some real gardens beautifully photographed by Hannu Sarenström found this link via Camilla.

7 comments:

S'mee said...

can I come live in your brain?

Anonymous said...

Your post about the upside down garden reminded me of an exhibit at a museum near me called MassMOCA. The exhibit by Natalie Jeremijenko and titled Tree Logic, in which she planted tree upsidedown to prove that they will always grow away from the earth and towards the sun. I've always loved this exhibit when I go there....check out the website http://www.massmoca.org/visual_arts/visual_arts.html...scroll down the page to see a photo and desciption of the exhibit. :) The grapevine bed sounds lovely too...i used to wrap grapevine around my cast iron canopy bed and create a grapevine canopy to lay under at night. Hope you have a great weekend!

Anonymous said...

I love this amazing bed vision of yours...how magical and like s'mee, i too, want to live in your brain!

Robyn said...

oh so very creative! My favorite inside/outside for a garden is the old footed tub. A nice pond, water feature and then when it's time to drain , just pull the plug and wter the garden.

Did you buy the bed? If so I can hardly wait for the real pics!

Kim Carney said...

Thank you guys, s'mee and kate, I cleaning out a lobe I have not been using in a long time for you to visit anytime you want ;) Thank you Sarah for that link, fascinating! Chronicler, no, alas, I did not purchase that bed and I think about it all the time! I love the idea of a garden bath! Then I would not feel compelled to carry my grey water down the stairs to the backyard ;0

"Maggie & Kevin" said...

Love these illustrations, how clever and they have me anticipating spring all the more!

Shelley Noble said...

Kim, That garden idea is INSPIRED!! God, you are amazing. It's a truly fantastic concept. I bow low.