Vientaine - Art in Embassies Exhibit

 The Art in Embassies exhibit for Vientaine, Laos, including The Organic Garden, is now on line.  You can view my page here, and the entire exhibit here.  It includes work by Sue Benner, Carol Cassidy, Michelle Korte Leccia, Barbara Schneider, and Judith Trager.  Such beautiful work by very talented artists--I am once again thrilled and humbled to be included.

 It's the time of year when I put the rest of my life on hold, as much as possible, and spend time tending my organic garden.  It's a bit challenging this year, as we are having an unprecedented and almost constant string of rainy days, but it's challenging every year.  There's always something--rain, drought, weed or insect infestations, unexplained die-offs, etc.  On the flip side, there are always unexpected pleasures--volunteer plants in just the right places, things that shouldn't have survived the winter but do, a bumper crop of something delicious.  This year the moisture loving plants have exploded with lush growth, and in between showers I wander about and admire them.

The bulk of my time is spent, however, grubbing out poison ivy, garlic mustard and bindweed, dividing and moving things that have exceeded their space or welcome, spreading mulch, and planting new seeds and starts.  It's hard work, and a very solitary pursuit, as I strive to approximate a certain internal vision of paradise on my suburban lot in life.  It's creating order out of chaos, or more precisely the attempt at creating order, that I find so compelling.

It all translates into my work in fiber, as I start with disparate elements and images, many of them taken from the garden, and merge them into a coherent whole.  I'm not aiming for perfection, either in the garden or in my quilts, but rather for the space where there is enough order and pattern to reassure yet enough chaos and surprise to be of interest.

I am fortunate and appreciative that I have the means to spend time and energy on purely ornamental plants, and that the edibles I grow, while important in my diet, are supplemental to the wholesome food so readily available here in Lancaster County.  I'm hoping that my work in the exhibit in Laos is able to strike a chord with everyone who grows, or admires, or depends upon a garden.  It's a universal theme in any culture.