Spring Greetings

May the awakening earth
energize our spirits and
lighten our hearts.

Blossoming witch hazel from the garden

Open Garden June 12

Last year my daughter convinced me that I should volunteer my garden for the Newburyport Horticultural Society Members Garden Tour. Every year our June meeting is made up of visits to three members' gardens. She had been suggesting it for several years and I kept saying "Maybe someday. The garden isn't where I want it to be yet." She reminded me that the entire premise of my teaching was "Relax. Enjoy. It's all about the process. Don't worry about perfection. It's the spirit that counts." She didn't need to add that my attitude was contrary to those beliefs.

As I write this, I want so badly to offer qualifiers, to dampen your expectations and apologize for my effrontery in thinking that my garden is worthy of presentation for viewing. But instead I will share my favorite passage from Julia Child's book, My Life in France:

“We ate the lunch with painful politeness and avoided discussing its taste. I made sure not to apologize for it. This was a rule of mine.

I don’t believe in twisting yourself into knots of excuses and explanations over the food you make. When one’s hostess starts in with self-deprecations such as, “Oh, I don’t know how to cook…” or “Poor little me…” or “This may taste awful…” it is so dreadful to have to reassure her that everything is delicious and fine, whether it is or not. Besides, such admissions only draw attentions to one’s shortcomings (or self-perceived shortcomings), and make the other person think, ‘Yes, you’re right, this really is an awful meal!”

I am opening the garden up to visitors on Tuesday, June 12 from 1–4 PM. It's at 311 High Street in Newburyport. Feel free to stop by if you are in the area. I hope to share photos in another blog post.

If you are in the Newburyport area and interested in gardening, you might consider joining the Horticultural Society. It's name sounds rather formal but it is a friendly, down-to-earth group. Visit their website for information.

I'll be sharing little booklets with the chapter on perfection from my book, Art Lessons: Reflections From An Artist's Life, at the open garden. If you'd like to print and fold a copy of your own, download this pdf and follow the directions in this video. You'll want to have the writing on the outside when you make the first fold. You want the cover to be the page that says on perfection.

Getting Ready for Books in Bloom

It's time to get ready for Books in Bloom at the Newburyport Public Library on April 7. The year's book was a gift from my friend Ann McCrea. It contains haiku by Basho, Buson, Issa, and Shiki in both Japanese and English and is bound in the Japanese style. My original plan was to make paper flowers with a haiku on each one but a quick experiment made me realize that the idea would be harder to make happen than I had hoped.

At this point I know I will have a branch or two of some kind and haiku hanging from the branches. I may even use this one and add some small flowers—thinking of wax flowers. I wrote out this haiku on lokta paper from Chino Crafts in Nepal with sumi ink. The pen caught in a few places. My first inclination is to find another paper but I think I might like the occasional roughness. We shall see.

Naming the Garden Take Two

I started a series of calligraphy and photographs in early spring called Naming the Garden which fizzled in late May. There were several problems. The main one was my choice of paper and ink. I was using torn strips of Lokta paper from Chino Crafts in Nepal which was the same paper I used for the Words For Our Time series and J. Herbin ink. The paper was difficult to tear and the writing took multiple attempts as the pen would often catch on the paper and create little blots of ink. I also found that it was hard to make the time to both write the tag and take the photo.  

I have just returned to the project with some changes. I am using Canson Edition paper which is smoother and sturdier and am cutting rather than tearing. I am using only the brown ink and not alternating with the gray. And I have been making lists and am going to write out all the Latin names I can think of at the same time. Then, when a flower is blooming and the light is right, I can go straight to work with my iphone. Below is a practice shot. 

My mother-in-law's passing has been another inspiration. She is the reason I am into Latin names for plants. She started a landscaping business when she was in her early 60s (that indomitable spirit) and schooled me on the importance of identifying plants by their Latin names so there would be no confusion about the exact plant you were looking for. I look forward to the documenting the rest of this season and returning to the garden in the spring. 

In Memory of Lyn and Her Garden

Lyn Gaylord 

1926-2017

It’s hard to think of Lyn without thinking of her garden. It was the manifestation of her creative vision, her relentless work ethic, and her indomitable spirit. It was her last thought as she drifted off to sleep at night and her first thought on waking in the morning. Her day began at or before dawn with a walk through the garden. 

Lyn’s garden marked the seasons and became the rhythm of her life. Spring was ushered in with yellow magnolia blossoms, hellebores, trillium, snowdrops, a vibrant display of tulips, and pots of pansies that beckoned passersby. In June roses burst forth—reds, pinks, and whites, mixed with deep purple clematis and lacy white elder. Summer ripened with magenta phlox, orange day lilies, and stands of yellow coreopsis. Fall’s presence was felt with the deepened rose color of the oak leaf hydrangea flowers and late winter brought the vivid yellow blossoms on her exuberant witch hazel. 

Lyn kept notes, wrote lists, and made schedules. Days were set aside for pruning, starting seeds, planting bulbs, and transplanting.  Her garden reflected her boundless curiosity. She raised beds, made berms, and built fences. She was always on the lookout for new plants and techniques. She kept bees. For a while, she had a bog. She learned from books and magazines, classes and workshops, and garden visits and conversations. She shared her knowledge teaching classes in her garden and beyond. 

Her garden was a gift to the neighborhood and a gift to herself. It was the place where she could connect with her best memories of childhood—picking and eating warm juicy tomatoes that had been sprinkled with salt stored in a fencepost with her Pop. It was the place where she could channel her prodigious energy and will, where the difficulties of a woman making her way in a man’s world held no ground. It was the place that offered her tranquility while she staked her “intense personal claim.” Her life was made richer by her garden as our lives have been made richer by her presence. 

My mother-in-law Lyn Gaylord passed away on August 7, 2017 in Seattle, Wa. Her garden was in Jamaica Plain, MA where it lives on with new owners. Martha Brookes Hutcheson, quoted above, was the designer of the formal garden at Maudslay State Park, a favorite spot for us to visit with Lyn here in Newburyport.

Studio Sunday-Naming the Garden II

I'm enjoying my Naming the Garden project—writing Latin Genus names on a strip of paper and photographing them with the flower. I didn't want to use black ink. I thought about colors to match the flowers but that seemed too complicated. I decided to go with gray and brown—neutral, not so strong as black, and available in the studio. Here are some of the images. If you want to see them as I do them, follow me on instagram (susankapuscinskigaylord).

Naming the Garden

The witch hazel is blooming, I love any chance to write words, and mother-in-law taught me to identify plants by their Latin Names. So I've decided to start writing out the names of flowers in Latin and photographing them with the flowers. My daughter got me onto instagram so this was first posted there and uses one of their filters. I like this quick bit of creativity and connection to the growing world in the midst of my usual work which takes place mostly in the studio. I'll continue to do it as the flowers blossom in the garden and post them here once a month. If you'd like to keep up with more frequent postings, you can follow me on instagram (@susankapuscinskigaylord) where I post other things as well.

Book Arts Tuesday-Collaborative Book Project with Zoranoske Vidakouchi

I was thrilled to get the collaborative book I did with my Croatian facebook friend Zoranoske Vidakouchi in the mail last week. He approached me about taking part in an ongoing project of his—making collaborative books and exhibiting them in Croatia. He left the choice of content and my part in it up to me. Since we both post pictures of flowers from our gardens on facebook, I suggested we make a book of photos of flowers from our gardens. He made the book, we both contributed photos, and I did the calligraphy and mounted the photos.

The book contains 9 flower photos from each of us. Zoran sent me his by email and I printed them with my Epson printer. He also sent the names of his flowers in both Croatian and English and translated mine into Croatian. I wrote the names in calligraphy and mounted the photos. Flowers from my garden are in English on the top: those from Zoran's are in Croatian at the top.

I treasure the book for its intrinsic value and as a symbol of the joy of creating and its capacity for making connections across the world.