The Art of Landscape Garden is, of course, a Visual art form.
So is ‘Magic!’ These are similar expressions, both being visual ‘trickery’……The ‘artists’ want to control what the eye is to see, or what the brain thinks the eye preceives.
In the ideal the art of landscape gardening should be to the eye, what Beethoven’s compositions are to the ear.
To the vast majoirty of home owners the grounds around the home they own is only a yard…..a piece of ground over which one must walk on the way to some conveyance to get to ones employment……or, mope around somewhere.
To many, perhaps most, it is a nuisance…..especially in summer when usually the duty of mowing the lawn demands attention each and every week.
For years beginning in the 1970s the snobbier American, mostly feminists, city and student folk both male and female, politically made snied remarks deriding and slandering suburban lawn mowing people, claiming the activity was an example of primitive Neanderthal males who didn’t know anything better to do with their time like joining the rape, pillage and burn culture of the times of that cultural revolution period.
Today, with the collapse of marriage females are often seen mowing suburban lawns. Many now days live alone.
Even among the happier homeowner the yard seems to be a threatening place. Nevertheless, the wealthier hire out. The poorer ignore it. These ‘yards’ are not the outdoor places where they want to play or work.
Yet, in middle America as one travels hither and yon throughout the Twin Cities, here near the tundra. we can catch sight of homeowners who care or take an interest in what the space around the house where they sleep, looks like. Some renderings smell as the nearest garbage dump. Others are minimalist, cold and mindless like the Rothko art piece that just sold for $75,000,000 on the modern ‘art’ market.
Others like the work of modern ‘art’ star, Jackson Pollock are smatterings of free form splotches. Instead of dripping or pouring cans of paint from a ladder over canvas, Pollock style, the homeowner reaches the same results by dropping potted shrubs throughout the yard as if casting feed to chickens until the yard’s space can bear no more. These enthusiasts are often new religion motivated, hugging trees and opposing global warming, preferring the bitter cold centuries of Neanderthal man’s life.
Neanderthal Man became extinct, however. Perhaps the tree huggers when in college, didn’t read that far.
Landscape gardening at homes or businesses is a very public art form
To enjoy a bad play, boring book, embarrassing Minnesota Gopher football, hear a terrible concert, view an exhibit of modern art, or strive for a modern university social science education, one has to pay for the suffering but has, at least, chosen the suffering in order to participate in the experience.
Although there isn’t any actual financial cost beyond fuel if you happen to be traveling through neighborhoods in some vehicle, bad landscape garden art is viewed nearly every where you happen to look when outdoors, whether you like it or not. One has no choice.
Worse…..Most Americans these days know nothing about the past, their’s or anyone else’s. They have become indoor people unlearned particularly in the history of life itself. In our America, majority polled two or three years ago believed Carbon Dioxide was a polutant and had to be reduced or eliminated from our air.
Congratulations to all of you who have discovered the miracle of life outside the walls of your own house for which you pay taxes every year. The world of landscape gardening is as old as gardening itself. It is the most cherished of all art forms.
In nearly every non polar culture throughout the history of our species, living in paradise is perceived as living in a beautiful garden.