The buffet is opened: Today came to visit the first bees! Still a bit slow and clumsy from the cold, but so nice to see them back in our garden!
Earlier this week, I went to my old childhood playground and gathered willow catkins. My mom dug out these old painted wooden Easter eggs and little beetles. In 2 weeks I will be moving. It is hard for me to imagine, but something in me is determined to discover and live in a new place.
New series about the secret life taking place in the garden at night. Because these are sleepless summer nights and I am nocturnal again for various reasons.
I am spending most of my summer working and enjoying time in our garden. Hence dedicating again the monthly theme to this topic. The new flower beds are finished at last and new plants are added on a weekly basis. The black flower theme is coming along nicely. For more visit my garden blog.
Impressions from my month of June, including my ritual for the summer solstice 2017.
View the entire Flower Devils series here.
April nightfall – chill, raindrops on pale petals of daffodils and tulips, roses
The garden after dark, all the myths…
In antiquity a marriage outside one’s social class would bring shame over the family. Abductions were staged to justify such liaison.(1) Against this background the story of the abduction of Persephone appears in a new light. It enabled her to be part of and live in two worlds, which were otherwise closed away from each other. She maintained the privileges of the world of the living, but also dined with the dead in the underworld and was let into its secrets. According to legend she picked daffodils when Hades ‘abducted’ her to the underworld. Her story remains fascinating, her flowers remind us of it.
Martin Luther too staged his abduction. Believed to be dead by his foes, he used the time ‘in the dark’ to translate the bible from original sources into German language (with a little help from his friends), one of the most significant cultural contributions of mankind. His signature flower became the rose. (2)
(1) Harold Roth, The Witching Herbs, p. 48 “Kidnapped Brides”
(2) The Luther seal or Luther rose is a widely recognized symbol for Lutheranism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luther_rose
Besides…
I watched lots of docus on Arte +7. Yes, the one about the comet (so amazing) and the series on space time and matter. About the chief and the forests. Also earlier about the super plants. And now I am hung up on the magic garden series… eg this one about the garden as a place of initiation: http://www.arte.tv/guide/de/057898-003-A/magische-garten
Visiting a sunflower field, before venturing on to gather wild herbs and rowan berries. I recharge and absorb the warmth of the evening sun. The temps have dropped to a chilling 12 °C. Going deeper into the sunflower field, a bee, stiffened from the cold, is stuck to a huge sunflower head. I wonder if it will make it through the night. It would wake up to plenty of food though. A few seconds later the sun has vanished and the sky is ablaze…
Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum), on Stinking Hellebore (Helleborus foetidus) flower
Sharing this here as well…
The game is as usual: guess the plant depicted and leave a comment with your suggestion! If you have been following my recent postings on my new herbalism blog you will easily find the plant in question. A hint: it has to do with autumn. 😉
Vernal mandrake shooting forth plenty of flowers, in fact surpassing all previous years. It’s an utterly delightful sight! But still too early for bees or other pollinators. I may have to jump in…
This is my last of the vernal variant, all the others are autumn mandrakes, which flower in autumn and resort to an underground existence after christmas, usually showing no sign of life until the next fall. Even though I saw one of them is sprouting anew… I wonder if that one manages at last to actually flower at a time when the temps and light conditions are suitable.
Me and the mandrakes… an endless story to be continued.
Another photo of the plant in its current state of glory… those fresh leaves that look like salad (but are really very poisonous thanks to a variety of alkaloids) may soon extend to half a meter length.
Btw. I’m working on Regina Amandrakina prints…
Fungi collection, 2013
Find updated the site’s Art section, to which has been added amongst others a new page for “assemblage” works, which includes old and new pieces.
Assemblage is an artistic process. In the visual arts, it consists of making three-dimensional or two-dimensional artistic compositions by putting together found objects.
Usually this refers to fixed creations constructed from various elements, which may or may not be movable. I am expanding the term as I also group temporarily assembled objects into that category. You find there for example my “Harvest Circle” series and various other loose compositions, which are put together only for the moment of the photo and later re-used for other purposes. E.g. the dried herbs, fungi and flowers may be utilized by Occvlta jewellery in the creation of unique pendants and artefacts. Yet these temporary works have a point and meaning of their own and may talk to the viewer in different ways. Technically these could be considered still lifes, however I feel the elements are literally assembled, and the process and style of the compositions are closer to assemblage than classical still life.
Central to the work are the dried (and dead) parts of plants, from seed to root, from flower to fruit and everything in between. Usually the material is derived from plants I have grown and harvested by myself. Hence another working title for these compositions is “Dead & Arranged”. Below are some more examples.
In the future I consider doing fixed assemblages in the manner pictured, however I am still researching techniques and materials.
Wiebke Rost 