Sculpture Garden

the view of the sculpture garden from the back

Last year, after the end of the Labor Day Studio Tour, we decided to transform the failed garden along the side of our house into a sculpture garden. 

walking into our yard for the Artist's Studio Tour

During the tour, the garden had already been transformed into bare dirt, so as to better display the work for the tour, but we decided to make it permanent.

cat's view of the sculpture garden

This small strip of yard between the house and the pavement had housed a garden when my daughter was young. She and I worked together on it over the years to grow a variety of disappointing carrots, a few tomatoes and pea pods, some hearty rhubarb (until the plant somehow died), a few respectable pumpkins, one impressive watermelon, and too much mint. 

the piece on the left is high fire and ready to withstand the weather, but the tall piece is raku and much more fragile

As she got older and both her activities and mine got more complicated, both of us lost interest. I was only ever doing it beause it seemed like you "should" help a kid learn to garden. I hated being hot and working in the sun, not to mention remembering to water and weed all the time. Eventually, I think, her youthful excitement at the miracle of life was overwhelmed by her growing recognition that this was a lot of work for not a lot of payoff.

the yellow and black piece in the foregorund is raku, while behind it is a high fire piece that was damaged by force

I remember seeing her Grandmother's beautiful greenhouse with berries and lush greenery and even kumquats and being both impressed and dejected. But she said something whose phrasing I forget but whose meaning has stuck with me, basically: she spends a lot of time on her garden, while I'm to busy to be any good at gardening. 

the closest piece dates back to my MFA show and was also displayed in a garden

Well, I appreciate the folks who do grow tasty plants for the farmers market and those who brighten up my walk to school. And I have some idea that at least some of those folks like spending time on gardening, but that's not me, so this new garden is a perfect fit for us for visual appeal, limited maintenance, and not having to water it.

The ceramic "rocks" inside this wood fired piece blend in with the real rocks aound it (unfortunately, this is the the one that got stepped on)

My husband put down the brick trim and the rocks, and then I simply arranged some old sculptures on that side of the house.  Most of the sculpture has stayed intact pretty well in the nearly 11 months since they've been out. A few pieces were done with low fire clay, so they were damaged a bit during winter, but not as much as I expeted. One more piece was stepped on, we think, when a guy was lurking around our window last year.  

view of the garden today from the front

I'd like of like to put some larger work in the rocky area near the front, but I'm a bit worried that I'll put in the work and then someone will swipe it--or smash it. On the other hand, we've had a large sculpture on the front porch for over 17 years and it's only been pulled off the porch by teenagers and left on its side in the front lawn once in all that time.