I have always been intrigued by walls and fences - perhaps because they are often the most prominent man made feature in rural landscapes. I'm sure my fascination with walls stems from my days as a geologist since they provide valuable clues as what lies beneath the soil. I have very few walls but I do have lots of fences and the demise of one of them and the construction of its replacement, provided the inspiration for a new era of my involvement in my garden that eventually led to this blog. The fences around my garden are a mixed bag. We have weatherboard some of which are new and some are old and we have one very dilapidated panel that is on my list of jobs to do. We have unglamorous wire fences along the back of the paddock. sawn wood field fence and a fence with split chestnut rails - my pride and joy which you can see in te header photo. The trouble with fences is, over a long period of time, they succumb to the weather and beetle damage and eventually fall down. Here are a few of my fences. | |
This might seem like a strange title but it represents the outcome of a #creativeHE hands-on 'Creativity in the Making' conversation that I have been co-facilitating with John Rae over the last two weeks (March 6-20th). The basic idea for this conversation was to invite participants to make something and to create a narrative about their making process to try and tease out how creatvity featured in the process. Alongside this practical making, John and I, assisted by Joy Whitton tried to encourage participants to think about the process of making and share their own perspectives. What has emerged (and is still emerging as a write this) is an interesting and rich set of perspectives. At the time of the conversation one of my fences was being taken down and a new one built so I used it as the subject of my making. The artefacts I made are in the form of a narrative and a film which I posted on YouTube. Its a good example of how my garden inspires me to make and create and to think about it from an ecological perspective.

ode_to_my_fence.pdf |