Garden Details
If Mrs. Berg’s gardens can be thought of as a series of paintings, then their frames are made of my stone work. Sometimes the frames exceed the size of the paintings but the brush strokes that define the compositions of color, texture and form are made with living things. Gordon painted his pictures on pre-framed canvases. His art making went far beyond one single moment of creative inspiration. He painted his way into the past by composing around and through what was already there, and painted his way into the future by applying pigments that are alive, and continue to grow. Gordon and I had independent visions that became interdependent realities upon the completion of our labors.
A visitor may drink in the total experience of the gardens while at the same time tasting horticultural and lithicultural details. In some garden areas one can be pleasantly overpowered by stone, while in others, delightfully smothered in foliage. Differences can be divisive but in the case of Mrs. Berg’s gardens differences unite into an amalgam of outdoor pleasure. If there is one criticism of the gardens it usually derives from the dizzying effect their variety has on those who attempt to take them in, all too quickly.
Small details are sometimes lost in the whorl of visual stimuli. It may take a second look to find them. Examples include: