Finding A Bit Of Paris In The Backyard

      Europe has always been my favorite destination for a vacation. But this year, with the dollar heading South, its not really wise for an American, to take a vacation in Europe. In the pastiche of these thoughts, I have a story to tell you about how I found a bit of Paris, in my backyard.

      In 1995, on a vacation in Europe, I visited Paris. As an architect and artist, I fell in love with it. It offered a very charming urban image. This consisted of cozy streets lined with lovely flower shops, art galleries, cafes and restaurants spilling out their ambience onto the side walks with relaxed, wine sipping customers. Besides this, to add to the charm were street artists, musicians and birds. The streets were a live display of arty, bohemian culture.

      One thing that I found very unique to its street culture was the presence of live sculpture. This was basically street artists dressed in white robes with skin painted white. They come and stand still like a marble statue. With all the well placed folds in their robes, they look like the statues at the Louvre. In the evening they shine in the moon light and resemble the marble sculptures by Michelangelo. The passers by are supposed to leave money in front of them. What a stiff way to make a living! But then its the arty city of Paris, and the culture of its museums does rub off on the street artists.

      This Spring I planted some more Hostas. They arrived in mail as bare root. After spending many happy hours digging, planting, mulching and watering them, they are finally showing signs of life. As the shoots appeared and unfurled into lovely foliage, I couldn’t help but think of them as live sculpture. The tapestry is that of a leaf, the folds are provided by the slowly unfurling spirals and the texture is in the form of veins. They are live, stiff and beautiful, quite like the live sculptures of Paris. With their presence, its like finding a bit of Paris in the backyard :) So here I present a few of these, to complete my story.

Ratna

One  Young shoots

Two 

 Three

Four

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But each of us is an artist. An artist is merely someone with good listening skills who accesses the creative energy of the universe to bring forth something on the material plane that wasn’t here before. It was a part of spirit before we could see it as a book, a painting, a ballet, a film.

- From ‘Simple Abundance’ by Sarah Breathnach

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Published:
May 28, 2008 / 11:46 am
Category:
Gardening, Nature Photography, Travel, Writing
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