Petals & Pedals: Bed and Breakfast- a feast for the gardener's eyes

It may or may not be known that there are few other loves in my life besides gardening. My little family is one, art is another, ecology is embedded deeply into my heart as well. When several of my loves show up simultaneously, the world becomes brighter and even more fantastic. When I read about Little Cakes Little Gallery, that magic filled the air.

The gallery itself is the front room of Hanna Fushihara Aron’s (that's her in the picture) home, and the gallery’s manifesto is part guerrilla part environmentalism and 100% exciting. It’s exactly the type of gallery I’d like to have if I can ever shake off all the pitiful distractions that keep me from such honest work.

And the show there now is just as much gardening as getting out in the soil. Something like homemade compost, "Bed and Breakfast", according to the Little Cakes Gallery website, has been brewing for a while. Evah Fan and Brendan Monroe, an artist couple from Berkeley, CA, have cultivated a visually tasty art show based on gardening and growing your own food.

Pieces vary from literal pieces to more mysterious depictions of the invisible happenings below the plant covered surface of the dirt. As the site says,

To them, and to many of us who have learned to enjoy getting dirt under our finger nails, gardening is very "do-it-yourself" in the same way punk rock is/was to us; making your own zines, putting out your own music, making your own food! In this show, they have chosen to use their artwork to enrich the "soil" of our lives.

Hmmm, that sounds familiar doesn’t it?

Since I’m moments away from jumping in the car for a quick weekend trip to the all-too-literal Hotlanta (mid 90s, really? C’mon sun, I love you, man, but you’re killin’ me), here’s some more info lifted directly from the site:

The show's installation will include paintings, sculptural works, and collaborative pieces. Brendan will focus on the micro worlds within the botanic landscape. He takes reference from science and interprets his fascination with it to create something that draws our attention to the multitude of possibilities that are happening just below the focus of our eyes. Evah will portray gardening with her quirky point of view. She is interested in creating deceptively simple narratives with small doses of ambiguity and naïve humor.

Little Cakes Little Gallery
"Bed and Breakfast" - a show inspired by home gardening
By Evah Fan and Brendan Monroe
June 6th - June 29th, 2008

And if you’re a little further south, come on out to ICE this weekend. Me and my number 1 love will be there constructing and hosting rain barrel demonstrations!

Renee Garner has a passion to make things grow, although her brownish thumb wants her to believe otherwise.  When mud pies aren't on the menu, you can find her doodling the days away at Wolfie and the Sneak.

Comments

[karin Grow]

Great article, My husband and I installed 5 rain barrels at our little obode last fall. They are so great and really save so much precious water here in southern California.