Studiology

New Work

Studio time has been spent making smaller pieces. My quota for weirdness may be rising, it was around 30% before but has escalated, and new work is wonderfully strange. I can't wait to share. This one is finished, only about 8" tall. Built from a plastic dinosaur head and various metal parts. She is available at C'Ville Arts in Charlottsville, Virginia. 

The theme for May at McGuffey Art Center was Myth, so I build this winged lion. His wings are gold leaf, something I haven't worked with in a while. A large piece, about 2 feet tall. An antique clock case is the foundation.

More new pieces coming soon. 

It's Hard to Get Out of the Garden

This glorious day just delivered a short series of rain squalls, just enough to water in the multitude of new plants and seeds just planted. Behind the rain came a clear and coolish day, enough to add an extra layer to be comfortable. Prior to the rain I spent some quality time with my salad greens, harvesting and experimenting with texture and taste. After many years of planting various blends of lettuce and small head types, it has come down to a few favorites that are relatively resistant to heat and turning bitter. Here is a rundown of varieties I've come to like for various reasons, especially how they look when combined into one big salad.

From left to right: Red Butter (also considered bibb lettuce), Alboreto baby leaf, Lollo (an heirloom loose leaf), and All Star Gourmet. The latter is truly outstanding as it produces various leaf types with an early harvest and great taste. 

From left to right: Ruby Red Orach (a spinach substitute), Truchas Romaine (mini heads), and Salanova's Green Incised which is so frizzled, it's beautiful all by itself.

In our climate we have to look at varieties with an early harvest to beat the heat, and all of these do. The Romaine (Truchas) makes mini heads, so it's ready to harvest in as little as 45 days. Spinach that has overwintered is going to flower now, but still tastes good with a nutty flavor. It's feast time for these wonderful salad greens which can be combined with baby carrots, radishes, and nasturtium flowers. 

In the flower gardens there have been many surprises, one of which is this orchid that traveled from my old garden in a clump of hakone grass, overwintered in a pot and then produced this wonderful flower. 

I bought a handful of varieties from Carol Allen many years ago and lost them all, or so I thought. It would be nice if someone would give me a clue as to which variety it might be. I also bought some Clematis viorna at the Cullowhee Plant Conference and they are in flower. The scope of this species is gigantic with lots of variation. It's an adorable little vine that needs to be more popular.

My wet mini meadow is swelling everyday. My forecast for full bloom is early July. Some native perennials were not happy with the moisture and moved to higher ground, like Monarda bradburiana, which is beautiful right now.

A few others that are looking spectacular are Gillenia trifoliata or Bowman's Root (a native) and Epimedium x 'Pink Champagne', which is still going strong!

Finding time for art projects has been difficult, although I have 5 started and 2 recently delivered. I'll leave that for another day. A rainy day. 

 

The Whir of April

A month with 30 days, April was full of changes both in the gardens and with rotating visitors. I learned many things about Charlottsville, Virginia; music scenes, culture, gardens and restaurants.

Monticello is very close and the gentleman that represents Thomas Jefferson is outstanding. I recommend joining him for a chat on the lawn which incorporates questions from the audience. Our days questions included topics from banned books to woman's rights and voting restrictions of the day. He is always in character! As much as he was the highlight of the day, the gardens and house tour make it well worth a visit.

The Paramount Theater offered a documentary about John Singer Sargent, the American painter, best known for his portraits of wealthy socialites. To see his work on the big screen and understand the scale of his work and skill was incredible. If history and art are of interest to you, catch this if it comes your way.

A small private tour of Morven Farm was also part of April. Home to the University of Virginia's Sustainability Lab, it is used for teaching and research. Many of the gardens are set up with boxwood hedges or rooms which are typical of Virginia gardens at the turn of the century.

My own gardens, only in their second spring, made me smile every day. Here are photographs that span all of April.

The only thing lacking was rain and I feel it fitting to complain publicly, that is often the cure. We are abnormally dry as are parts of North Carolina, and I hope that changes soon.

On a positive note, I did find this beautiful orchid on a recent walk. It was a very special moment.

Glorious April

Just a quick romp through the shade garden. The deer haven't been back, but then I have sprayed and fenced a few things and continue to play a radio every night. The gardens are in their 2nd spring, many of the perennials moved from my old garden. As the tree's leaf out, the scenery in these mountains are phenomenal, especially when backlit. Yellow finch feed on the dandelion seeds in my yard and flutter up all at once when disturbed, which is magical. There is also a resident mockingbird who is very vocal as he (probably a young male) runs down the local inventory of birds. He spends most of his time in a tree by my bedroom, and his library of bird calls is large.

Epimedium 'Pink Champagne' has speckled foliage , possibly the reason for the name, like tiny bubbles.

Epimedium 'Starlet' has red edged foliage, perhaps like feather boas on a starlet?

Incredible foliage on Epimedium versicolor, mine are in more sun than they want, which might be the reason for this intense leaf color. 

 

The flowers on Primula sieboldii are typically snowflake shaped. This is an odd one in the genus of primrose with a summer dormancy, it literally disappears for summer. A wonderful groundcovering plant with rhizomes that spread. Best planted under leafy perennials to fill the empty space as this one sleeps.

Yellowroot (a native) would not be planted for its brown flowers but more for its ability to grow in dry shade. Even so, I find the flowers curious.

I have never seen bluets or Quaker Ladies grow as abundantly as here. This native must like acidic soil and can be found in great drifts looking more like creeping phlox. Occasionally there is a white flowering plant.

Disporum flavens is a slow growing perennial which takes many years to clump into a good size. I am always happy to see it flower, for me a very worthwhile wait.

The shocking thing about Daffodil 'Kokopelli' is the fragrance. A late flowering variety that is a seedling of Daffodil 'Sundial' which is an old tazetta and the reason for the heady fragrance. Impossible to miss as the perfume fills the air around it.

I fell in love with Daffodil 'Delnashaugh' at Oak Hill. A very late variety with super double blooms. Here with Zenobia or honeycup, a shrub of coastal Virginia with eucalyptus-like leaves.

Last spring I planted a number of native azaleas, hoping for flowers from spring to fall. The first to open will be the Pinxterbloom or Rhododendron periclymenoides which also grows wild all over Virginia and can be seen along shady roads and highways. The buds are already showing a bit of color and another show is beginning; so it goes in spring. 

 

Company in the Garden

Things seemed odd, witch hazel and quince with disappearing flowers, pear trees denuded, filipendula chewed to the ground - that can mean only 1 thing, deer! So as the conflict begins, I will share some photographs of things that have been left undamaged.

This is an adorable dwarf daffodil species, Narcissus canaliculatus. 

Primula sibthorpii from Dan Hinkley and Heronswood Nursery (way back in the day). I have always thought his selection had the best color.

 
The small pink puffs are the female flowers on comptonia or sweet fern, the male catkins or pollen source, are the male.

Stylophorum or wood poppy is a native that oozes an orange sap that is toxic, so I know I'm safe with this native.

Epimedium x versicolor 'Sulphureum' is sister to the following E. versicolor 'Versicolor'.

Daffodil 'Pistachio' is a strong contender for replacing my favorite D. 'Lemon Glow'. Both have that soft yellow color that goes with everything.

The male carpenter bee has the black dot centered in the yellow fur on his back, the female is completely black. The male has no stinger and is also known as Xylocopa virginica, indicating that it is native to Virginia. His tactic of intimidation is flying near or at you, but he is incapable of stinging. Also known as long tongue bees, they are able to access pollen and nectar from tubular flowers, although they will also steal nectar by making a slit on top of the flower and stealing nectar, particularly when they don't fit in the opening. 

For now I have built loose branch domes over plants I want to protect until I figure something out. Russian olive branches have been perfect because they bend and can be speared into the ground. Plus I enjoy cutting them down, as we should all be doing. The deer don't like the smell of the new leaves and stem, so that's another plus. We are very close to a large hunt club property which about to be converted into solar panels, so my deer problems may have just begun, I had zero deer last year. For the first time I put out a radio, just last night, tuned to a boring talk show; they ignored it. My trail camera shows 2 who seem very familiar with my garden space, tonight I might sleep in the garden.

 

 

Sweet March

With just a week to go before April, March was not bad, mostly sweet on the pulse of weather, no blizzards or severe freezes (at least here in central Virginia).

My new gardens have now reached their one-year anniversary and the daily garden review requires regular walks to see what's coming up. Poking and prodding are part and parcel of March. Thank goodness we think, winter is done. 

Last March was my first visit to the Virginia Daffodil Show at Lewis Ginter Gardens where many notes were taken, orders placed. Any daffodils that were rescued from my old nursery site went to my daughter's house, so this new space was completely void of any sort of bulb.  That was remedied with photographs and notes from the show and a few fall deliveries. 

As the Daffodil Show was scheduled for March of this year, my oldest granddaughter decided to compete with a few stems of those that had been transplanted, she brought a total of 3 and did her homework. In the bustle of labeling, she was expecting to exhibit in the youth division, she was placed in the adult category, which can only mean stiff competition. We were told that it was a good year (dates and weather), and over 1800 stems were entered for judging. There were 2 large rooms full of cut daffodils, it was incredible!

We all arrived for the show to learn that she placed second in her division with another Honorable Mention. The second place was for Daffodil 'Lemon Glow' (my favorite) and honorable with D. 'Delnashaugh', a fragrant double pink and white bloom. She was the day's daffodil rock star with no previous experience!

and her entry looking back at her

Of course, more notes and photographs were taken. There was interest in the orange petal with orange trumpet (like last year), but also the dwarf varieties that fit into nooks and crannies of March but also clean-up well. Here follow some of our favorites, just scroll over the photograph to reveal the name:

This little 'Itsy Bitsy Splitsy' is a seedling of the above - 'Equation'

It's been decided that we will both compete next year and a first for me to try my hand at daffodils on the competition stage. And it takes a few since the date might mean early or late daffodils, depending on the season. Hopefully it will be another sweet March.

New Shoes

A few more shoes were pulled out of my cache to become something entirely different, each with their own story. Two were men's shoes, patterns on the side were the reason I bought them, fully intending to give them a new life as a piece of art. This first one is made with a porcelain doll head, a small lion head (pseudo door knocker), lamp parts, lion's foot for a table leg, ribbon, and clay beads (and of course a shoe). The clay work for the mane took a few days but was well worth it once painted and completed. I titled this one simply "Son" with the adult lion at the top of the shoe and younger (human lion form) at the bottom.

The next one is built with a paper weight that highly magnifies. Behind the paper weight is a face, taken from "The Invisible Man" puzzle toy. It's a bit disturbing to suddenly realize that you are looking at a see-through head, and it is only realized when you look at it from a certain angle. All the better in my opinion. He is hard to photograph without reflections, I did my best. The title is "The Path You Choose" largely because he reminds me of a soothsayer or diviner and the linear piece on top goes to a star. There is also another face, more like an owl's face, holding the round paper weight in its mouth. 

And that was one funky shoe!

 The woman's shoe includes parts of a trumpet, another porcelain doll head, and a wooden parrot that was made of wood but was in rough shape and needed sanded and repainted. Naming a piece can be a large struggle and this one defied any clever ideas I had. In the end she became "Just a Woman and Her Parrot". 

In the end she reminded me of Catherine O'Hara as Delia Deetz in the movie Beetlejuice.

One of my favorite things about working with shoes is how they hang on a wall. I often call it skinny art and it's also the reason I like making wands, they can hang almost anywhere, in a corner, next to a door jam, next to a closet, above a lamp, etc... 

 

Time in the Garden

March has arrived and with that I spent an entire day and much of an evening mulching and planting. Cool crop seeds are in and this year I'm growing shelling peas as well as snap. Two more fruiting trees (both pears) were also planted, although they were inexpensive and from the grocery store, a huge disappointment once I got them out of their grow bags and found that the roots were almost nonexistent.  I will be surprised if they survive. 

With my assortment of little terra cotta pots, I potted up some bulbs and gave them moss companions. The one thing that does amaze me are the many mosses and lichens that thrive here. Commonly found is deer moss or lichen (which it actually is) and British Soldiers or matchsticks, which are strange little stilts with red tips. Not technically a lichen but an algae/fungus union. One of my favorite little daffodils is the species romieuxii which is similar to the petticoat narcissus but very yellow. Unlike the petticoats, which I have always grown on the wetter side, these want dry (or drier).

Other plants that have cheered me on are the little tommy crocus, snowdrops, and helleborus. My snowdrop collection was largely left behind, digging and timing were not on my side. But I have largish clumps of Galanthus nivalis, which are as cheery as any.

You can see the red tips of the British Soldiers with Crocus tommasinianus (farthest pot to the right). The clay pot on the left, in front of Narcissus romieuxii are little bluets or Houstonia caerulea, which grows everywhere here in central Virginia. They have yet to flower but will be adorable in a tiny clay pot.

Lots of daffodils were planted last fall and newly planted bulbs take a bit longer to flower their first year. I'm not a patient person (FLOWER ALREADY!!!). It's also clear that I lost a few things which I will chalk up to soil pH. We are acidic, more so than my old garden. I used a lime around plants that I thought would require sweeter soil, but alas a few are gone. 

The wet meadow has been way too wet to work in but it does look like everyone is fine and slowly waking up. It should be spectacular this year, even though it's only its second year. 

The helleborus are few, I left many behind when I moved. Of those I was certain to dig Helleborus 'Quilty' from Graham Birkin. He was hybridizing for upright flowers some 25 years ago, at least. 

Another favorite is H. 'Penny's Pink' with the tinge of pink in the foliage.

These are lenten roses from the old days, as new ones are often sterile with upfacing flowers which rise above the leaves. There really are very few that I dislike and chances are there will be more. My garden is young.

Carnival Update

The alarm went off at 2:30 AM for the beginning of numerous flights to Oaxaca, Mexico. The first airport was right here in Charlottsville, which was a pleasant surprise, easy in and out. Once in Oaxaca, there is the happy search for food because it's hard to find a bad meal in this beautiful place. Some of my most memorable meals have been here, sometimes accompanied by Spanish singers with guitars, or a view of the Cathedral of Santo Domingo de Guzman. 

The art group and its participants were almost all there, and tours around the city would begin the next morning. One of the wonderful things about traveling to this part of Mexico are the many art forms, from fabric, print making, clay, and wood carving, days if not weeks could be spent on just one - inspiration comes from them all. It was also Carnival week, so numerous parades were passing on the streets. Clowns, devils, and a few skeletons serve as evidence of the power of evil prior to repentance.

 

One of our tours led us to Zoologico Magico, home to one of the only female Alebrije carvers which are the colorful wooden animals painted with insane detail. We learned about the symbolism of patterns, colors, and animals as well as the long period of internship in all facets of building these creatures (and on a side note, almost all tours begin with a bit of local Mescal).

This is probably my 4th time to visit the shops of Alebrije makers and it's always a learning experience. I noticed that the smallest bit of paint detail came from a syringe filled with paint.

Between class time there are the walks into the center of town. A large part of what made this trip so wonderful were the lack of big crowds. For the Day of the Dead festivities, it's very, very crowded. For this trip we were able to walk into restaurants that are usually booked and/or overcrowded, even able to pick excellent seats with vantage points for people watching. 

On Fat Tuesday or the true day for Carnival, we visited a small village were men and woman, young and old, cover themselves in used motor oil. The parade begins early and cowbells hang from their waist as they dance their way down the acala. Most are covered in black oil, a few use orange or red oil. Masks are made of everything imaginable; skulls, wood, Paper Mache, and cloth. A band travels along and the beating of bells and music make it hard to miss. In our circle they are called the "Oily Boys" and we were warned about wearing old clothes in case we were hugged. We literally ended up in the middle of the parade, but with some quick maneuvering, only my purse was oiled (I see it as a pleasant reminder of a crazy day).

We also visited some incredible cathedrals, an art installation of Raku vases, and of course admired the crazy array of street art.

So much happened in the space of 10 days that it seemed like a month. Oh, and we made art too. The theme for this visit was "Altered Egos" with interactive art or a way to move or add heads. I had hoped to finish a male and female piece but was only able to finish one. He turned out better than I envisioned, so it was a successful art trip.

His extra heads fit into slots on the bottom, and there are a total of 4. Hopefully I will be including more photographs of the finish and his female counterpart.

The trip was hosted by Michael deMeng, and our daily tour guide was Mija Matriz, both of which made this my favorite trip to Mexico so far! 

 

 

 

Carnival

For numerous years I traveled to New Orleans for pre-Mardi Gras celebrations, always home before the real Fat Tuesday. This year I'm headed to Mexico for Carnival, or their Mardi Gras, traveling to Oaxaca again with Michael deMeng and attending his class with a lot of structured tours to take in the celebrations. The theme is "Altered Egos" and the art focus is on characters with multiple heads and the ability to swap them out. I've spent some time on the pre-build, hopefully avoiding the rush to finish a project before heading home.

All of my trips to Oaxaca have been for Day of the Dead, so I'm excited to see the city in a different season. Of course, it's also nice to head to the tropics in February! So, while the lenten rose are just starting to bloom in my garden, I look forward to their happy faces when I return, and the true Lent has begun.