Customer Reviews

In This Garden: Exploration in Mixed-Media Visual Narrative

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am not an artist, but this gorgeous book makes me want to get creative!
I love how each featured artist gives her personal "zen garden" favorite memories and how useful gardening tips are also included. The quotes included under the garden-collage photos are wonderful. Each time I looked at the garden scenes I noticed more and more amazing details that I'd missed before. This book is perfect for all types:artists seeking new inspiration, gardeners looking for new and unique ideas and tips, and admirers of mixed-media art who may want to get creative themselves...a charming and whimsical book!

This book is fabulous. It will inspire you to start a garden if not in your own back yard or on paper, definitely in your thoughts. There are 13 amazing artists who have created their own garden. Everything from Marie Antoinette's garden, a garden for every season, to a community garden of the past that is just a wow! There are quotes regarding the garden under each piece of art. The book takes you into the artist's thoughts and memories of their garden. Which I just love because it makes the book personal, you feel a connect with the artist. The artist also shares the materials and techniques that were used for their garden piece. The art work is beautiful. This is a book to take outside, sit under a tree and let it take you away.

All the Artists in this book have brought there own unique styles to create their own individualy stunning "Gardens". I don't really care what medium an Artist choosed to use. I did not get "In this Garden" or the "in this House" for a "how to". So I was not disapointed by this book at all. It is very much like an extention of the "In this House" book which I own as well. I'm all about the pictures and the inspiration I get from all of the variouis Artists. The ephemera that is included is a beautiful bonus. I would love to have a creative afternoon with any one of these talented ladies and just create! I'll serve tea and sandwhiches. ;)

At its most basic, a garden is essentially a cultivated space - even if it is cultivated wilderness. All of these pieces reimagine the conventional garden and show us places that are partly real, partly imagined, but deeply personal; each one is cultivated to reflect a different and interesting vision.

Several of the gardens express a deep love of place - New Orleans Junkyard Garden, for example, and Down Under Dreamtime garden. Others embody a particular era (real or imagined), like The Prairie Rose & Sagebrush Garden and Marie Antoinette's Garden, which both recreate a fanciful version of a time - the romantic heyday of cowgirls and a technicolor Versailles - that, in some sense, never existed. Others, like the Shadow Garden or the Wayfarer's Haven, create a surreality with fanciful abandon.

I love the "Shortcut Through the Garden" - a kind of mapped version of the table of contents - with the Indian Ocean just a hop, skip, and jump away from the Mississippi River. The "Field Notes" following each garden also provide the artist or curious reader with a technical, yet easy to understand peek into how each garden was crafted.

The accompanying (largely literary) quotes are a nice touch, bolstering the view of the works as narrative. On a more concrete level, the format of the pieces - each has four panels corresponding to the cardinal directions - as in "In This House," also contributes to the aura of storytelling. Instead of a linear tale, however, the panels provide a glimpse of different aspects of one vision. Each is another aspect of a cultivated space, each another corner in a harmonious - though not necessarily tame - garden.

All in all, even though I enjoyed some pieces more than others, each has so many rich details to linger over that one could spend countless lovely afternoons exploring and returning to rediscover each one.

Favorites, in no particular order:
Sarah Fishburn's New Orleans Junkyard Garden
Tiffini Elektra X's Wayfarer's Haven
Lynn Whipple's Community Garden
Marie Otero's Down Under Dreamtime

...it doesn't really matter, you'll find inspiration here. It's a beautiful book, one that provides hours of eye candy even if you're not an artist. And if you are an artist, you'll get hints, tips, and techniques from masters of mixed media. There is a huge diversity in the "gardens" featured, from the wild and colorful New Orleans Junkyard Garden to the simple, elegant monochromatic Community Garden. Add in quotes, musings on gardens and gardening, and this is the perfect book to cuddle up and pore over in the dead of winter, or to flip through over a glass of lemonade in the heat of summer.

Having followed this creative and artful duo of Angela Cartwright and Sarah Fishburn, I was expecting great things with their new book. So I'm more than thrilled with this delightful collaboration! Their choice of contributors and variety of projects makes this a valuable source of inspiration and motivation. Get this book if you love a mix of photography, words, mixed media techniques and creativity to inspire. Then set some time aside, for you'll not want to put this book down - unless you just can't wait to start your own artful project - and you will.
I say Bravo! Can't wait to see what they come up with next!
You should check out their Yahoo group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/inthishouseandgarden/

Having loved In This House, a mixed media visual exploration of houses created to look like books, I was thrilled to see a new and related title--In this Garden. Everything about this book is visually beautiful and its concept and style appear unique. I have a huge collection of arts and crafts books, but these two are my absolute favorites! Various mixed media artists were invited to create their fantasy gardens on a series of pages in individually created books. Their comments provide insight into their artistic process and a list of materials used by each artist is also given. This book is a delight!

Linda Willson

A beautiful collaboration of artists across the country, giving you an artistic mixed media flavor of their community or home. They also give tips on the techniques they used. It is not really a how to book, nor is it just something lovely to look it. It is a bit of the first and a lot of the second. I am continuing to enjoy it.

One look at the cover and you will be drawn to the inside of this incredible book, which is filled with an abundance of art and techniques sure to peak your inspiration. I recommend this book to all!
Magic and Joy!
Lisa!

Loved this book: the photography, text, quotes, artwork, ideas.....just amazing. Thank you for sharing these creations.
Sondra