Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Art in my Garden

bird house in front yard, living bottle trees behind
Thought I would share a bit of art from my garden.  I'm very fortunate to have a great group of longstanding friends.  We all met up about 18 years ago through homeschooling our children and La Leche League.  The group has been an amazingly creative bunch, and two women have become successful artists, with works in galleries and works in both the Memphis Botanic Garden and the addition to LeBonheur Children's Hospital here in Memphis.  Below is a piece by MaryJo Karimnia, mojo fine arts, who does a lot of mosaic as well as painting and drawing.  I have it sitting by my patio resting against the tulip magnolia.


This is my screen door from the patio into the screen porch.  This was done years ago, so it's very weathered and faded so it's hard to tell from the picture, but it's painted up with a carnival of blues, yellows, reds, flames and check patterns, snakes and eyes, and messages for the visitor ("Knows all, Sees all", "Madame Luna is in" -- a reference to our mini dachshund who passed away this last December -- "past present and future", and more painted on the inside.  This was done by Mary Cour Burrows


Now this below is a mosaic-ed concrete table and benches in my back yard.  In our circle of friends we have a custom of doing a group quilt (everyone would do a square or portion and all would help with the quilting) to present to those of our circle who were pregnant.  As we all got older, we would do a group project when one of us would turn 50.  This table is what my friends did for me for my 50th birthday.  Mary Jo supervised the project and designed the table top.  Each participant (there were 9) designed and mosaic-ed a section of the benches.  We joke that we can never move now, because how could we get the table and benches out of there (it was a job getting them here from Mary Jo's garage, which was the work site).

table top

bench detail

second bench detail

third bench detail

over view
And below is a painting by Mary Cour Burrows done for my 40something birthday, not in my garden but in our house, entitled "Diana Finds Her Church in Her Garden".




Linking toTuesday Garden Party

7 comments:

CindyB said...

What awesome eye candy in the garden! Especially enjoyed the story behind each piece. Thanks for sharing.
CindyB

Manuela@A Cultivated Nest said...

What lovely way to celebrate such a milestone birthday and they're all so talented. The benches and table look so beautiful! Love the screen door too. How wonderful to have such artistic friends!

Jami @ An Oregon Cottage said...

What a gift for your 50th- special and unique! You are blessed. :-)

Jami @ An Oregon Cottage

Sweet Bee Cottage said...

You, my dear, are truly blessed! Such talented friends and the table and benches are just spectacular. And don't worry - the followers will come. You have a delightful blog!

If you want to have more people visiting.....link up to popular parties. People will stop in and then be delighted and start following! Giveaways help, but my thought is I don't want you to follow just because you want my giveaway. I want you to follow because you like what you see.

Thanks for buzzin' by! I'm always delighted to see you.

La Table De Nana said...

What a treasure:)

Theresa Merkling said...

Marvelous mosaics! Thanks so much for sharing - hope you don't mind that I pinned the projects to my pinterest mosaics folder..

Unknown said...

Thanks for visiting Theresa! (I can't find a way to email you so I'm replying on here). Feel free to pin :-)