Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Art, inspiration in the garden
Recently I wandered through the neighborhood where my friend Mary Ann Mack lives. I don’t go that way often, so I hadn’t seen Mack’s street-side garden in quite a while. On this particular day I was greeted by the clematis twining around her mailbox post and a large clump of spider flowers. Under an overcast sky that promised still more rain, it was cheery to see the pink and white blossoms of the spider flowers (Cleome hassleriana), at this point in the season grown tall enough to be nearly at my eye level. They seemed to lean their heads toward me, swaying at the tips of their stalks, looking like near-sighted people straining to see better. Below the flowers were tier upon tier of the signature, branching seed pods that give rise to another of Cleome’s common names: Grandfather’s Whiskers.
The clematis vine still bore several deep purple blossoms, but the main feature of this plant was the profusion of tousled-looking seed whorls, all with their champagne-colored tufts spiraling counter-clockwise like little mop-heads.
Looking at the clematis and the cleome I wondered if children’s author Dr. Seuss had ever seen either of them. (Look at the photo of the clematis seed heads and an illustration from “The Lorax,” and you’ll see what I mean.) I had always thought that Seuss just had a wild imagination. Was it possible that his inspiration came from the world around him? Had he seen in nature things that might have inspired some of the zany-looking characters that illustrate the pages of his stories?
In wondering about Dr. Seuss, I remembered something that one of my history teachers talked about in class years ago: the contrasts in the artwork of the Native Americans of the eastern North American forest and the typical designs of those who lived on the Plains. The decorative work of one featured floral and vining motifs while the embellishments of the other were characterized by circles and lines that captured the spare essence of sun, moon, and open grassland. It made sense to me that one’s environment would shape one’s art, that artists of every age—especially early artists— would draw the things they see around them.
Other art came to mind, for instance the oddly-shaped, mistshrouded mountains and landscapes in Chinese paintings. For a long time I thought they were fiction, depicting some mythical realm. Then I saw photos of some of the actual mountains of China—Mt. Emei and Mt. Huang-
shan in particular—often half in clouds and fog. The mountains I thought were mythical actually existed.
Does inspiration from nature apply only to visual art? I think it goes much farther than that. Years ago, when I was learning how to play the bagpipes, I was intrigued to find ornaments (the combination of embellishments and grace notes that give pipe music its distinctive sound) that sounded like birdsong; in particular, I thought I heard the song of the Wood Thrush. Had birds inspired pipers of old to try and mimic these sounds?
Last week, a Facebook friend posted a photo of a
beautiful, yellow and black “writing spider” on its web. I remembered the day years ago when I discovered a writing spider that had spun its silken strands between the hose-holder and the siding on the back of our house. I was fascinated by the zig-zag pattern that decorated parts of the web and I wondered if author E.B. White had ever seen such a thing. Could a writing spider have been the inspiration for his classic children’s book, “Charlotte’s Web?”
I wonder—have any of you found inspiration for art, literature, or music in your gardens or anywhere else in nature? When you’re out in nature or just looking at a single flower, where does your imagination take you?
Note: The Barclay Friends Annual Secret Gardens of West Chester Tour and Plant Sale is this Saturday, Sept 8th from 10 am to 3 pm and will feature 17 gardens. The event supports Barclay Friends’ horticultural therapy program. Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 the day of the tour. For more information, please visit http://bf.kendal.org/ events or call 610-918-3429.
Pam Baxter, author of “Big Life Lessons from Nature’s Little Secrets,” is an avid organic vegetable gardener who lives in Kimberton. Email pamelacbaxter@ gmail.com, or send mail to P.O. Box 80, Kimberton, PA 19442. Share your gardening stories on Facebook at “Chester County Roots.”