Studio Sunday-Paris Gardens

I've known for a while that I will at some point do a printed book about Paris focusing on the gardens we saw during our trip last fall. The great turnout (73 people!) at my talk at the Newburyport Public Library last week, and the time I've spent with the images preparing for it and the first presenation in March to the Newburyport Horticultural Society, inspired me to start the process.

My goal is to get a basic layout going and then work on it as my schedule allows. I will be doing some composite images like the one above from the Museé Rodin. The hard part, as I see it, will be to combine these images with more straightforward ones and my text which is wide-ranging with bits and pieces of history, my observations about the design of the gardens, and my fascination, repulsion, and love-some feelings about the street art, graffitti, and tagging that is all over Paris.

Probably the best part of this whole process is that it has extended the trip for me to way beyond the three weeks we were there. As I have spent more and more time with images on the computer over the past several years, I am continually amazed at what a rich environment I am working in. I have discovered that I feel as transported by and connected to nature on the screen as I do at the other end of the studio where I work hands-on with natural materials.