No, it's not my house, but if you want to see a picture of
yard art gone berserk, go to my website, select Garden Photos,
and take the link there
http://www2.netdoor.com/~hboswell
Harry
suddenly im not feeling so strange!!
Why is the mailbox so plain?
Actually, I think there's about 6 square inches off to the left where
another lawn ornament could be squeezed in.
I enjoyed looking at your page, Harry!
--Kathy in Missouri, zone 5, 26 F now, with a nasty wind-chill
I didn't know all the art was home-made. Now, I actually am impressed.
Sounds like a very busy lady, who obviously has learned to made a lot of
different stuff. She just needs a bigger yard. An estate.
--Kathy
And if you think the outside is crazy, you should see the inside!!!
A little old lady lives there be herself. I stopped the day I took
the picture, and talked to her for a while. She gave me a tour of
the inside (only 5 small rooms), and every room is covered with
what she calls "folk art". She said as a small child she learned that
"an idle mind is the devil's playground", so she just stays busy.
She'll take anything and make art out of it - she's got statuettes
and pictures made entirely of old disposable lighters!
Harry
Harry, Are you sure that's not Felder's yard??
Carol
--
Virtually Gardening
http://www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/virtually_gardening
Speaking of yard art...I looked at the tire planter page on your site.
Those look cool! Do you just cut one side of the tire or both? Or is
that why its sitting in what looks to be a tire rim...
Martha
http://www.teleport.com/~onion
ICQ uin 264379
onion@teleport.com
gardening zone 8
Naah, I've seen Felder's yard, and it's interesting for true, but
nothing like this one.
She does things like take old shoes, paint them colors, put
rhinestones one them, and put them upside-down on sticks
in her yard; or take an old typewriter and paint it bright
yellow, festoon it with rhinestones and other baubles, and
stick it in front of sprawling flower of some sort, so the
flowers just grow all around and through it. Fascinating to
see how she can take an ordinary object and do something
"different" with it.
Harry
Harry,
I just found the right quote for her efforts, as part of a poem by Susan
Sark, keeping busy in creative ways. "How to be an Artist" starts with:
Stay loose. Learn to watch snails. Plant impossible gardens.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/3967/sark.html
Barb in Southern Indiana Zone 5/6 dorsett@blueriver.net
We must all plant our most "impossible gardens"
Sark
isnt there a neat book called garden whimsey that has a lot of this??
z
There is a house in town that has a yard like the one in your picture.
We used to drive by and make light of what we considered "junk". Then
we began to notice how carefully these folks placed each piece and how
carefully they tended the pieces. It made us feel a little ashamed of
our elitism with regards to yard art.
Jackie
Iowa
Great photo, Harry! You should send it and a note to Leno and
Letterman...they might do a bit on it (I can see Letterman sending Biff
Henderson for an interview).
As always, I enjoy your posts.
Kevin
In San Fran, where it's rainy and 60, my shasta daisy's are blooming,
camelias about to spring forth,lantana is still blooming....C'MON SPRING!
On Thu, 3 Feb 2000 23:20:59 -0600, Harry Boswell
> No, it's not my house,
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's your FRIEND'S house, right? :))))
Seriously, though, this reminds me (though the style is VERY
different) of the garden of a former next-door neighbor, a more than
slightly (though harmlessly) crazy Russian artist. He had these large
ugly (to me, at least, but what do I know about art?) sculptures
scattered throughout his yard. When you went inside his house, every
square inch of wall was covered with large paintings. The Homeowner's
Association was so upset about it, they finally made him move out (he
was renting). I never did understand why they were so upset. The house
was surrounded by a wall and you really had to make an effort to see
inside his backyard. The little front yard looked just as tame as all
the others in the neighborhood. The only ones who could easily see
the yard was me and the neighbor on the other side. I wasn't upset
about it, it was kind of fun. I guess the other guy was...
--
Magda Plewinska mplewinska@mindspring.com
Miami, Florida, USA
Cindy Becker wrote:
Gee, sounds familiar. All the houses on our street are brick with wood
or vinyl trim. All the trim is earth tones or slate blue plus a pale
yellow down the street a bit. Our trim is painted Anne's Red, a red
color that my artist wife whipped up and the paint store's computer
matched. We tell people we live in the red house with the red truck in
the driveway and they have no trouble finding us.
George
All this talk about yard art reminds me of a neat children's book called The
Big Orange Splot. Everyone on this one particular street has a house and a
yard that look exactly the same........until a seagull drops some orange
paint on one person's roof. The home owner proceeds to decorate his house
with wild paint and all sorts of exotic plants. At first, the neighbors are
dismayed, but finally come to understand Mr. Plumbean's logic........"My
house is me and I am it. My house is where I like to be and it looks like
all my dreams." Soon, everyone on the block has a home that reflects a
different dream. It is a nice story about individuality. Cindy
