She lives 3,900 miles from here on a different continent, but Helen Nock’s inspired craftsmanship just about ripped my heart out. I have rarely had such an avid appreciation of someone’s excellent work – and make no mistake, there sure are plenty of folks who do amazing things – but Helen’s work had me from the get-go.
The two bird baths – above and below - give an idea of her material and her general concepts. She – like me – loves mosaics and the crazy imaginings one can get from colored glass. Yes, it’s a weakness, I admit it. I thought the Indians got a great deal selling Manhatten for $22 worth of glass baubles, myself. I’da been cheaper! I am moved by the baubles made by the human hand. Just as the stained glass in the great churches moved men and women to forget their meager and hard-fought existences, witnessing God’s glory and the promise of better lives in those Holy Places – be they Mosque or Temple or the Great Cathedrals of Europe – now, from the hands of fabulous craftsmen and women such as Helen Nock, we get yet another near-religious experience. We are now enabled to witness a shameless exposure to radical artistic design – equally powerful in many ways and definitely as mesmerizing. Helen – like the architects of those inspirational devices of churches – also loves experimenting with her own version of killer baubles, enjoying the dimensional frames they fool us with and beguile us with so dearly – and with a playful sense of love at the same time. Art with a smile never looked so good.
So? It’s A Garden Fer Pete Sakes!! Get Real!
Sue me! What could be cooler? I’m just a gardener!!
These handcrafted products bring ferocious and gorgeous new colors into a garden, all season long – no matter the season. Plus, Helen has a hysterical take on symmetry going for her too – balance is structural, by all means, but hardly designed that way above her very substantial steel footings. I find much of her work positively “Antonio Gaudi-like” and love it. In those times of the year when color is so desperately desired, we have this incredible artifact – or many others shown below by way of tables, seats, bird baths or just standard ornamentation – all glitzy, translucent, shimmering and special and all our own. Man, am I ever a fan!
Here’s a close up of the picture above – and, yes, please ask about materials…………
This isn’t some small time girl.This is a serious pursuit and we gain from these gorgeous artworks.
I have no problem whatsoever in comparing what she does with the great artisans of our – or any – era. Art is a trick – we take standard average elements and make them something far, far more than they began with. At my most presumptuous, I think that about my best work. Helen Nock, as many others of us, works hard at her chosen craft. Her products are often commissioned by individuals with very particular wants. Take this Sunflower Table for example:
A stunning fact of her work is not just in its artistic sensibility alone, either. These items are not your everyday flimsy, department store items. They are made with the connivance and aid from her local blacksmith, as Helen’s demands go to such materials as Stainless Steel, bronze, copper and the slates and stone sets which need a firm footing, attached for super permanence. These are, after all, outdoor products for the most part. They need to accomplish sturdiness and stability facing the greatest conniving for failure devised by man or Diety – children, for one thing, rain and wind and the elements in general, for others – including freezing and thawing. Outside of the Sun, Nature’s most universal killer of man made things is the alternating temperature during a day’s passage.
Her “smithy”, Nathan Bennett, is a busy man, and thorough. Not only do they conspire to build these edifices extremely well, they build them to last. And not only do they build them to last, but Helen does these series’ of acid washes of the metals themselves, bringing colors out with each application, fastidiously producing her desired product. She works until she gets it right. I think I like this aspect best, but then I would. The thrill of producing permanent things is a wonderful accomplishment.
Here are her own words as to how she arrived at this craft: (from her website profile)
“I was formally trained in fine art and design with a special interest in painting but a series of unnexpected turns led to my current practice. My professional carreer began working with teenagers and young adults disaffected by mainstream education shortly after gaining my B A Hons as a mature student. A fantastic six years of lecturing and teaching both professionally and personally stretching, but by September 2006, I felt the need to focus my own practice.
I assumed a return to painting on a full-time basis but working in a disused stone quarry surrounded by wildlife, some training on the resident blacksmith’s forge and a strong interest in nature and natural materials strongly influenced my decision to make beautiful and unusual things that live outside. The metal working opportunity led to developing work where I could integrate wrought iron, and commission the blacksmith to manufacture from my designs. Exploring mosaic method seemed a natural progression to combine with wrought iron furniture. Latterly, I explored the potential of mosaic method for individual sculptural work. I will use a range of methods and material as work and inspiration suggest, not all exclusively mosaic but my abiding interest in mosaic method is fired by it’s flexibility and hardy utility, and diverse possibilities it offers in combinations of media and technique.”
Works for me!!
Here is Helen herself, decked out in her most decadent and oh-so-fashionable working attire and doing those lady-like things we all expect our wimmins to do. Yes, she is grinding away with a Super Industrial strength grinder. Oh still my heart!!! That grinder, by the way, is like what we use for shaving cement blocks and bricks. It is about as safe as a loaded gun and needs that much care to avoid accidental disaster – they are, in fact, so powerful, they can also ruin some work in a split second, too.
(She’ll kill me for this, I am sure, lol) Hey. I’m in love, don’t listen to those other guys!
What we get, from the developer of this art’s perspective, is this – the elemental series of constructions I found incredibly fascinating, to say nothing of the end product:
This is where she exhibits just some of her stuff. A word – she also does sculpture and she also does – get this – lighting for gardens, which I show here. This one is entitled “Wall Urchin”:
Here it is, lit up:
Helen Nock. My current most favorite artist in the world and also a great gal, I hasten to add. I’ve only spoken with her by mail, asking her permission to spread the Great Word and we definitely made one another laugh.
There can be no higher praise.
Thanks, Helen and keep it up!!
She does a great Pig, by the way!! And in a shirt, no less, for the more modest of us.
I love Yew Dell Gardens. Located just outside Louisville, Kentucky by just a few short miles, it is one of America’s most unique, eccentric and yet lush gardens. It’s history I already included in the updated post below this one. That particular post was my first visit there and it was in the Fall. I describe its history in far more detail there.
But there is something of the ‘Anarchist In Us All’ that stretches imaginations and challenges the senses in this minor masterpiece of garden artisan-ship. Yes, the superlatives are flowing. I just always find it hard not to go a bit nutso when I describe this very cool and interesting place. It offers some bizarre brain food – from haunting images such as the lonely but somehow eloquent message in “The Hand” in the middle of the field below, to the raft of strangely-colored hybrid plants, cooked up via the hard work of the early owners. Those who have taken over the running of this intriguing spot have completely “bought in” to the originator’s designs and intent. We gain immensely from this, all of us.
(click all images to enlarge)
In a great bit of serendipity, the garden was also featuring sculptures mixed in with the plantings, offering them for exhibit and sale. I especially liked the limestone carvings of this artist, Don Lawlor, a sculptor with this website which is way worth a look:
Tucked around Mr. Lawlor’s fascinating bird bath are the curiously-colored and unique (to me, anyway) Coleus plants which we found in abundance and – to our delight – in a literal rainbow of hues, some very subtle and muted and some very bright and incredibly playful colors.
Check out these bright red babies:
We just missed the Astilbe Show behind these gorgeous plants, but other blooms and invading, competing flowers and plants make this riot of color a pure visual feast. I remarked to my Mom, who laughed: “Man, those are red enough to be a flower!!”
And the Coleus love did not stop there. When I mentioned “subtle”, I meant it. This stunning example of understated elegance provides the perfect foreground and lush perimeter for the rose behind it.
Other Coleus had different designs, such as this one with the blood vessels:
Or this bright yellow, quite playful beauty, shown here at the entrance in excessive plenty:
A peaceful beauty surrounds the lucky visitors, complete with heart warming people who work there and who never fail to be cheery and as helpful as they can be. Below is a most peaceful image, placed near the famous Holly Walk. My good friend The Happy Monk got himself all married there. And it took!!
Proof that romance can flower near……….well……….flowers. But that’s redundant again. Like deja vu, all over again.
Mother and I wandered a piece, curious about adjoinging areas. The reason I bring this up is that we found what was either the original “Holly Walk” or else the practice field for Holly Walking. Kentucky is a basketball-crazy state. It led us to wonder if an area like this might not actually be for super tall basketballers. Don’t laugh. When I said they’re crazy about basketball, I wasn’t just “Whistlin’ Dixie”. Anyway, we felt delighted with what was for us a discovery.
We’re easy that way.
Back to………..hmmmmmmmmmmmm………….how about a few ‘Naked Ladies’?
It’s the Amaryllis Belladonna Show! This Naked Lady is native South African plant – a bulb – which has the most interesting pattern of growing with a fairly graceful foliage, then losing the leaves while the blooms appear. The nickname seems rather obvious, too, I would think. Groves such as this are plentiful at Yew Dell – small, shady realms of sub canopy beauty which the garden takes immense advantage of. To me, the groves such as this are one of its true draws.
We were fortunate enough to happen by this particular grove while it was being watered by a good old fashioned oscillating sprinkler. What made it most interesting were the water trails, mixed with the interesting apparent motions of the pants themselves and the additon of this shimmering sort of sculture, smack in the midst of it all:
Other groves of interest to me: (a small glass sculpture paradise, complete with wind-swept, spent lilies.
A Hosta Paradise, featuring – but not restricted to – Hosta Giants with its very own Fertility Sculpture (always handy! ):
This is getting long………..more in a day or two………….OK, one more sculpture:
By now, we’ve all probably heard this track. It has become wildly popular in some circles. They are an Icelandic Band, home of some very serious musical talent by my judgments. Anyway, I do recall hearing this once a while back but just “re-found” them recently.
So I came late!! Sue me, then. I dare ya.
I absolutely love this moving and highly spiritual track and I was absolutely riveted by the fine work done by the BBC on the video. The seasonal changes in Greenland – I am sure – and the High Arctic in general just plain take the breath away as does that most interesting couple and family we run across in the video.
Once again with the Louisville, Kentucky July bloomage rant, we begin with some extremely local flora in the guise of Canna Lilies. I’ve always loved this plant because I like their lines, to say nothing of their color.
(click images to enlarge)
They seem to be a late starter – relatively speaking – in Louisville. In Vancouver or Portland, they develop just a bit earlier, probably owing to the head start they get from the warm Pacific North West Winters. There’s a lot to growing one of these bigger, very upright and very tall plants. They take a while unfurling. But they offer an almost Ginger-like brilliancy of color to their rangy ways. These are the ultimate in “back row perennial” development, providing a tall and colorful background to smaller plants fronting them.
Other lilies also bloom a tad later than what I have become used to – and, what is even cooler – they seem to stick around a bit longer. Here are some local lilies which are still blooming and looking fine:
This one I particularly like, owing to the setting. Far from super sunny, the property with this picture is a very early morning shot where the sun is at a low enough angle to get through to the floor of this man-made canopy of gorgeous White Pines.
The Rose of Sharon’s are also beginning in Louisville and this time, for a change, the pattern is reversed. Whereas these are late bloomers out West – even in Reno – back here they bloom far earlier. Typically, out there they stay in bloom darn near until late Fall, so we’ll keep an eye on the ‘bloom reliability index’ here. The good news, in any case, is that they bloom just as plentifully as anywhere else, once they get going.
Pushy Clematis pretty much takes the cake for being lush. Acting lush is not a sin, however. If you got it, hey, flaunt it!
Hosta’s are maybe the most reliable of all perennials in Louisville. I’ve always been a huge fan of Hosta and have not always been in climatic conditions which allowed planting them. I mean, certainly not in the profusion we see here.
This “small Hosta Grove” is from a picture taken at my friends Dave and Billie’s home. Deeply shaded with yet another gorgeous tree canopy, their Hosta’s looked so good, you could eat ‘em. Dave and I rebuilt a wall at his place earlier this year, where we included our own architectural device I like to call “The Dip”.
Locally also we have many varieties of Hydrangea which bring back fulsome memories of this plant’s glory days when I lived in Vancouver, British Columbia. The English seem to know more about Hydrangeas than is normal and they were extremely profuse there. Locally, I have found an inordinate number of Oak Leaf Hydrangeas. I’m not sure if nurseries suddenly had a spate of them on their hands, but – whatever – they love Louisville and they are a terrifically interesting plant:
Subtle colors and great big huge old blooms and leaves make this a winner:
If you ever happen to encounter this guy on a street – no matter where you might live – do yourself a favor and walk the other way.
I’m not going to say he’s some kind of serial killer or something. But – then again – I’m not going to say he’s not, either.
So what’s blooming? Here it is early July and some stuff has hatched a plan to take off right in front of our very eyes. As you browse these pictures – which you can enlarge greatly by clicking on – bear in mind the scope of this adventure is just another trip around my local neighborhood. I save the special stuff for special posts, although to be perfectly honest, there is nothing not “special” about flowers anywhere, is there?
I cannot help but feature another one of my favorites – a picture I took this morning of perhaps the most perfect Southern Magnolia bloom I’ve ever seen:
Perhaps most apparent to me are these geographically new (to me) Crepe Myrtles. These are another wonderfully Southern plant, particular to warm climates and muggy weather.
This one above was actually a part of an interesting line of these gorgeous and rather informally-droopy plants. Here is a shot just a bit down the line:
And then here they are altogether, forming a rainbow-like wall of color and bright form, right up close to the street. I love this look:
Here’s a close-up.Is this plant cool or what?:
Some of the colors are electric:
I also like that they are used as masses, as is the case at this apartment complex’s central office:
Their colors match those – almost – of the local Hardy Hibiscus shrubs nearby, of which there are bazillions:
This of course is actually 2 Hibiscus plants, installed to hide the utility company’s ugly old box. I happen to be glad they tried it.
There is much variation in Hibiscii!!
Just as there is in the local Lily population:
We’ll explore Lilies more in the next post – including some interesting Cana’s. For now, let’s check in on how our Banana Plant is doing. It seems just about ready to begin devouring that poor house.
I’d say it grew just about 4 feet this month. Poor Harry.
The Southern Magnolia – or Magnolia Grandiflora – is a literal symbolic “Tree of The American South”. Most comfy in a habitat that stretches across the southern portion of the Southeastern-most states in the U.S., this gorgeous evergreen prefers the muggy Summer, sub-tropical heat and humidity which mark the climate of this area. It is actually hard to determine which is its most beautiful characteristic – whether it is the deep green and extremely glossy leaves which – when turned – show a brown and green underside of velvety texture, or whether it is the uncommonly lush and gorgeous creamy white blooms which stud the tree at the height of its real glory. Late Spring and early to mid-summers, this tree is nearly unmatchable in its grandeur and striking beauty. That the flowers themselves are slightly aromatic makes it something more along the lines of a massive Gardenia in many ways, a plant which shares its native habitat comfortably.
Once I personally discovered a few of these fancies growing reasonably well in Vancouver, British Columbia – when I designed and worked there – I became something of a ‘Johnny Appleseed’ for the Grandiflora. Just on the merits of foliage alone, this gorgeous tree stands apart for general appealing color and texture. That hardier cultivars had been developed also helped as well, although, to be honest, it was and still is a novelty plant for the most part. But it most definitely augments garden areas wonderfully with its medium growing size and those dynamite deep green evergreen leaves.
It is an unbearably and usually fatal chore to try and transplant, unfortunately. It has a rather unusual root system – Unlike most other trees and shrubs, the roots are largely un-branched and rope-like. For this reason, magnolias tend to suffer more than many other trees if they are moved after they reach a large size. Most magnolias can safely be moved if the trunk is less than four inches in diameter. The bottom line is always dig as large a root ball as you possibly can, use Vitamin B and water frequently. If they’re big ones, good luck!
In Louisville, Kentucky, where these pictures have recently been taken just browsing the local neighborhoods, this year’s incredibly muggy and hot weather has really pushed them to some extremes of beauty. The cup-like blooms are getting progressively more plentiful, reverting somehow to their genetic bases of heat, humidity and sun.
These pictures are all taken during my local walks here in Louisville. People are now used to seeing me trundle up by their houses, camera in hand, getting inches away from their flora. Funny enough, it’s a great way to meet people, as long as you are rude and thoughtless enough to trespass! Of course, once they find out that you actually know a thing or two about landscaping or gardening, next thing you know, you’re walking out back and advising on plants or designs. Hi Henry!!! No more Banana Plants!!
Just as in the case of the Portland Chinese Garden, a well-cared-for Banana Plant can actually do its thing in Louisville. The biggest concern is “Will it overtake my home??” Here is a shot at an early stage of a local Banana.
And here is a shot of it, less than a month later. You can see it grow!
Almost as cool as the Louisville fascination with Clematis on mail boxes! (This one with a bit of red-blooming Honeysuckle on the other side.)
One more Magnolia Bloom. These suckers are hard to get away from!
These are all taken either during or after projects we’ve done over the years. I have always enjoyed working with brick pavers. They not only carry a sense of permanence but they also actually personify the idea of permanence. I cannot think of many projects I’ve been on which would not outlast the homes I put them around, frankly. Done correctly – with ample drainage and the solid work of the bases underneath them, paver driveways and patios are 100 year things.
This project was pretty darn big. We had to make the small lake first, set rocks, then essentially rework the entire driveway into something much, much more. The pattern we used was a rather maddening one, requiring each panel to be laid in alignment with those laid previously. The “maddening” part came with whoever or whatever had been done prior to your work. This is a pattern which calls for absolute perfection or the result will be a big old Fail. Notice how the pavers getting ready to lay are all piled up on top of what’s already been done. They are like that because of the many variations in size and angularity of the bricks, all pre-formed to a specific pattern. Inasmuch as there were upwards of 8 different sizes and shapes involved in this complex pattern, knowing what order they go down in was a huge back, leg and head-saver.
Sometimes the sheer scale of the project was a bit intimidating. I once took a two man crew – and myself – to Northern British Columbia – Bobcat on my truck – to lay a walkway and outdoor terrace for the hockey rink and City Hall being constructed in a brand new mining town. When the trucks began arriving, they literally didn’t stop. 18 flatbed semi-loads (with trailers!) soon showed up, each containing around 24 pallets of pavers. Unloading them alone caused palpitations. It was also so far North, it led to bizarre conversations such as this:
Me: “What time is it? Must be dinner time. Feels like 6.” (Still bright outside.)
Bradley: “Um, it’s 11 PM, Boss. Hey, can we go watch the Grizzlies out at the dump later?” ………….Ouch! This went on for more than a month. The overtime was wonderful for the guys but their girlfriends were mad at me. And we were good!
This project was one of those Endless Deals. 20′ wide, these are “fire lanes” which course through this condominium project for a bit over a quarter of a mile. The picture below is around the corner of the one above, to give an idea. This is Vancouver, by the way. We did this one around 1983. It hasn’t moved much.
But my favorites tend to be the more artistic, small projects, geared to please. Here’s a killer little rear yard patio that won an award in its price range:
Lots of cutting pavers where that set of steps makes such a sharp turn. The concrete steps which were already in place allowed us to apply the pavers by using paver adhesive which has worked marvelously to this very day. The small walled garden and our added arbor feature add an upward element which I always liked.
The angles here, at a 45 degree line with the home, actually served to give the impression of some complexity and of additional width. We actually reversed the angle at two points, as an interesting design contrast, separated by the colored border bricks..
Paver Glue also allowed us to place new bricks over this formerly solid and glaringly white expanse of concrete which came with this home – a home and project featured in this blog in many other places. Pavers adhesives are an unbelievably mature science now. Their versatility and powerful grip is a refreshing tool I have watched enter the installer’s arsenal of tricks.
The function of brick pavers as a design element serves many things. Strictly considering design alone, it offers a practical and far “softer” layer than pretty much any other surface outside of natural stone slabs. The amazingly varied colors and styles of pavers combine with the patterns to make something nearly organic – or at least biomorphic - in spite of its pure cement content. That they are the strongest available material for paving is just gravy.
Anyway, enough for Part 1. Part 2 will have the dancing girls and my special “Brick in Every Toilet” speech. Stay tuned!!
I’m trying something newish here and it looks OK. I took these panoramic shots during a couple of projects in Portland (the first and third photo) and Reno (obviously, in the second and 4th). I’m either going to let these ride for now, or will amend them later. Each has accompanying shots, taken during the progress of each, which I am currently looking for.
As it stands now, these work just fine for the nonce.
I find that by left clicking the picture, it will appear enlarged. Further detail can be obtained by clicking again at the spot of the small plus sign or arrow, depending upon your browser setting.
I’m a big Clematis fan. Since most of my writings in here deal with issues of construction and process, it seems I rarely write about the plants which have filled out these projects at the tail end of all that dirt moving, rock rolling and fabrications. I actually know my plants pretty well and I have some most definite favorites. Clematis would be one of those.
(left click to enlarge any pictures)
The truth is, it can be a rough plant to locate exactly right. The old saw: “Head in the Sun, feet in the shade” was never lost on me and has turned out to be fairly accurate. It also needs some amazing rich and good-draining soil. Once all this is accomplished, one can watch it grow. It must be added that the vine itself is extremely delicate. One bad move with a weed-eater and you can ruin 10 years worth of Clematis in a New York second. It always amazed me the amount of bloomage, foliage and all the rest which can proceed from such a scraggly start, . But those vine beginnings are truly every bit of “diminutive and fragile”.
Here’s a mess of a Springtime guy of the Clematis family, all early as heck and profuse as you could ever want. This is an early Spring bloomer and actually somewhat fragrant.
Later on in the year, we get the Real Deal as Summer approaches and we begin catching what these glorious heavy-blooming vines are all about:
I once took a picture of this relatively famous Clematis, at least famous in Vancouver. It grows in the David Lam Chinese Garden, hard by UBC and actually on campus there. This would be the same garden where I walked nearby as Queen Elizabeth roamed it, with a gaggle of kids with her. This may be the largest Clematis I ever saw – and thank you to the Botanical garden at UBC for this picture. A Clematis Montana, this sucker has been around for a while!:
What I found incredibly interesting, since moving to Louisville, has been the natives’ uses of Clematis as Mail Box Decor. It is one of those local fads which have seemed to have caught on and I really like it. Add that postal workers must certainly prefer these gorgeous plants to the more prickly roses which one can find decorating mail boxes in the past, and I think we’ve found a winner. Here are a few, just now getting uderway this early Summer:
Just up the street a ways -
To cement my amateur photographer status, I submit this one. I like its look and I won’t be back there any time soon, so I’ll let it fly in the face of snootier picture takers:
Here’s a great “starter kit”! I particularly love the bloom color.
This one has to be shown, since its a few doors down from us. The use of Clematis takes a newer route, garnishing a lamp standard, another visible local opportunity to feature this stunning plant.
I thought the Indians got a great deal selling Manhatten for $22 worth of glass baubles, myself. I’da been cheaper! I am moved by the baubles made by the human hand. Just as the stained glass in the great churches moved men and women to forget their meager and hard-fought existences, witnessing God’s glory and the promise of better lives in those Holy Places – be they Mosque or Temple or the Great Cathedrals of Europe – now, from the hands of fabulous craftsmen and women such as Helen Nock, we get yet another near-religious experience. We are now enabled to witness a shameless exposure to radical artistic design – equally powerful in many ways and definitely as mesmerizing. Helen – like the architects of those inspirational devices of churches – also loves experimenting with her own version of killer baubles, enjoying the dimensional frames they fool us with and beguile us with so dearly – and with a playful sense of love at the same time. Art with a smile never looked so good.
Don’t laugh. When I said they’re crazy about basketball, I wasn’t just “Whistlin’ Dixie”. Anyway, we felt delighted with what was for us a discovery.
