Notes on Poe's The Landscape Garden

Huntington Beach Central Park. Photo by Myriam Mahiques. Personal archives. 2020.

The most popular E. Allan Poe’s tales are those psychologically thrilling, related to murder, maladies, anguish. But I came across with this story and found it wonderful in the main character’s point of view about landscape. As always, he dies young, but this time, what is important is the emphasis in the pursue of happiness under certain unusual immaterial conditions (the landscape interventions), and the discussion of how man can affect the landscape design throughout scales, even with a minimalist contribution.

Romantic landscape, 1826

http://www.shafe.co.uk/crystal/images/lshafe/Cole_Romantic_Landscape_c1826.jpg

Poe tells us that his friend Ellison was a very handsome man, heir of a fortune, with a beautiful bride and ample possessions.

“He admitted but four unvarying laws, or rather elementary principles:”

Health: free exercise, specifically in the open air.

The love of woman.

The contempt of ambition.

“An object of unceasing pursuit; and he held that, other things being equal, the extent of happiness was proportioned to the spirituality of this object.”

Ancient Chinese landscape painting. From

http://www.squidoo.com/landscape-paintings-origin

“When it had become definitely known that such was the enormous wealth inherited, there were, of course, many speculations as to the mode of its disposal.”

Instead of engaging in extravagant expenses or involving in politics, or build great buildings, or bestowing his name in institutions of charity, he decided that none possibility was adequate for him.

“I was not surprised, however, to perceive that he had long made up his mind upon a topic which had occasioned so much of discussion to his friends. Nor was I greatly astonished at the nature of his decision. In the widest and noblest sense, he was a poet.”

It means, he was not a poet indeed, but he understood the poetic sentiment:

“The proper gratification of the sentiment he instinctively felt to lie in the creation of novel forms of Beauty”.

This concept of beauty was supported by physical loveliness. Nevertheless, Ellison did not become a musician, or a poet, or painter, or sculptor.

“But Mr. Ellison imagined that the richest, and altogether the most natural and most suitable province, had been blindly neglected. No definition had spoken of the Landscape-Gardener, as of the poet; yet my friend could not fail to perceive that the creation of the Landscape-Garden offered to the true muse the most magnificent of opportunities. Here was, indeed, the fairest field for the display of invention, or imagination, in the endless combining of forms of novel Beauty….In the multiform of the tree, and in the multicolor of the flower, he recognized the most direct and the most energetic efforts of Nature at physical loveliness.”

British landscape with a train. My (filtered) screen shot from the movie The Awakening

Being a landscape gardener would fulfill his destiny as Poet; Poe argues that no Paradises are to be found in reality as have glowed upon canvasses; in real landscapes, there will always be found a defect or an excess; the artist, can arrange the parts that will always be susceptible of improvement. Regarding landscape, Ellison takes it as the supreme art, and at this point Poe agrees it has to be true, because the artist (Ellison)

“not only believes, but positively knows, that such and such apparently arbitrary arrangements of matter, or form, constitute, and alone constitute, the true Beauty.”

So, this particular inclination triggered between the friends a kind of discussion about how to proceed with nature: with its exaltation or its improvement.

“It was Mr. Ellison who first suggested the idea…….that each alteration or disturbance of the primitive scenery might possibly effect a blemish in the picture, if we could suppose this picture viewed at large from some remote point in the heavens. "It is easily understood," says Mr. Ellison, "that what might improve a closely scrutinized detail, might, at the same time, injure a general and more distantly- observed effect."

It is interesting to see that a kind of “butterfly effect” is discussed here, together with the idea of change of scale and location for the observer’s point of view -one of the premises of design-, which in turn is involving collateral conclusions at the spatial scale where, supposedly, any former quasi-angels humans must exist:

“There might be a class of beings, human once, but now to humanity invisible, for whose scrutiny and for whose refined appreciation of the beautiful, more especially than for our own, had been set in order by God the great landscape-garden of the whole earth”.

Central Park in Huntington Beach, CA. Photo by Myriam Mahiques. Personalarchives. 2019.

Ellison then quoted a writer who had been supposed to have well treated this theme:

"There are, properly," he writes, "but two styles of landscape-gardening, the natural and the artificial. One seeks to recall the original beauty of the country, by adapting its means to the surrounding scenery; cultivating trees in harmony with the hills or plain of the neighboring land; detecting and bringing into practice those nice relations of size, proportion and color which, hid from the common observer, are revealed everywhere to the experienced student of nature. The result of the natural style of gardening, is seen rather in the absence of all defects and incongruities- in the prevalence of a beautiful harmony and order, than in the creation of any special wonders or miracles. The artificial style has as many varieties as there are different tastes to gratify. It has a certain general relation to the various styles of building……Whatever may be said against the abuses of the artificial landscape-gardening, a mixture of pure art in a garden scene, adds to it a great beauty. This is partly pleasing to the eye, by the show of order and design, and partly moral. A terrace, with an old moss-covered balustrade, calls up at once to the eye, the fair forms that have passed there in other days. The slightest exhibition of art is an evidence of care and human interest."

"From what I have already observed," said Mr. Ellison, "you will understand that I reject the idea, here expressed, of 'recalling the original beauty of the country.' The original beauty is never so great as that which may be introduced. Of course, much depends upon the selection of a spot with capabilities. What is said in respect to the 'detecting and bringing into practice those nice relations of size, proportion and color,' is a mere vagueness of speech, which may mean much, or little, or nothing, and which guides in no degree. That the true 'result of the natural style of gardening is seen rather in the absence of all defects and incongruities, than in the creation of any special wonders or miracles,' is a proposition better suited to the grovelling apprehension of the herd, than to the fervid dreams of the man of genius.

….The true poet possessed of very unusual pecuniary resources, might possibly, while retaining the necessary idea of art or interest or culture, so imbue his designs at once with extent and novelty of Beauty, as to convey the sentiment of spiritual interference. It will be seen that, in bringing about such result, he secures all the advantages of interest or design, while relieving his work of all the harshness and technicality of Art.”

Ellison’s garden is a middle state between human art and Almighty design. Its beauty is an effect in human perception, something ethereal that cannot be expressed as in landscape paintings. It is clear that technique, in itself, is not art. Art, in Ellison’s opinion, has to be imbued of spirituality to correct the imperfections of what has been given to us.

Patagonia Argentina. From Pixdau.com

REFERENCE

The Landscape Garden. In "The Complete Tales of Edgar Allan Poe". Barnes and Noble, New York. 1999

The Sea Forest of My Octopus Teacher

 

All pictures are screen shots of My Octopus Teacher from my computer. Personal archives.

We have seen enough of the Amazon rainforest wild fires to understand this is a world were humans are becoming detached from nature in their pursue of economical interests. Contrary to this, there is the work of film-maker and naturalist Craig Foster that is highlighted in Netflix documentary "My Octopus Teacher" filmed in the kelp forests of Cape Town. Regardless all the comments on Internet about the eroticism of the "love story" between Foster and an octopus, I have found the film very interesting, I enjoyed the story and the photography a lot.

Regarding this blog, I see an analogy between the (ground) forests and the kelp forests, though sometimes the difference in scale from one environment to the other may be huge. Can we say they belong to each other? Ideally yes, if we consider that catastrophic events during the Ice Age have uprooted conifers growing two miles above sea level in the Himalayas and brought them to a deep sea grave, and eventually, floods carry trees from the low lands to the sea as well.

As another conceptual parallel, I have the habit of walking among trees while smelling, touching them. It feels like immersing in the landscape. And Foster is shown swimming surrounded by kelps, explaining there is no way he would wear a wetsuit. He has to feel this environment in his body, despite the cold. What a direct example of a man attached to nature! 

For a definition of a kelp forest, I take this paragraph from the USA National Ocean Service:

"Kelp forests can be seen along much of the west coast of North America. Kelp are large brown algae that live in cool, relatively shallow waters close to the shore. They grow in dense groupings much like a forest on land. These underwater towers of kelp provide food and shelter for thousands of fish, invertebrates, and marine mammal species. 

 Kelp forests harbor a greater variety and higher diversity of plants and animals than almost any other ocean community. Many organisms use the thick blades as a safe shelter for their young from predators or even rough storms. 

 Among the many mammals and birds that use kelp forests for protection or feeding are seals, sea lions, whales, sea otters, gulls, terns, snowy egrets, great blue herons, cormorants, and shore birds. 

 These dense canopies of algae generally occur in cold, nutrient-rich waters. Because of their dependency upon light for photosynthesis, kelp forests form in shallow open waters and are rarely found deeper than 49-131 feet".

I am sharing here the beauty of these kelp forests, all pictures are screen shots of My Octopus Teacher from my computer. Foster collaborated on shooting the sequence with his friend, Blue Planet 2 cameraman Roger Horrocks. Do not reproduce without my permission.

Gardens through Stained Glass

 

Kristin Newton. Calligraphy beyond words. 1976. Artist's collection.

As I mentioned in my first post "Inbuilt Landscape," a garden is not an ornament of the house. I intend to strengthen here the dialectics between inside and outside, without forcing the geometries, but having a fluid space where the garden or landscape participates of the house interior space as well, bringing home, wilderness, the sacred, and cultivation evolving together.

 A conceptual primary idea can be found in my previous post about arts incorporated to landscape, where the artist is working on a plastic film held by two pine trees. The spatiality of the painting becomes part of the landscape behind and around.

As an architect I see both exterior and interior as integrated spaces. And one way to enhance the house and garden connection is the use of stained glass as translucent pieces of art in between.

I am sharing here some beautiful stained glass art next to the landscape, all my pictures have been taken from the book "New Glass. Stained Glass for the Age of Handmade Houses", by Otto B. Rigan with photographs by Charles Frizzell. New York Edition, 1976.

Paul Marioni. Homage to Chicken Little. This window is located in Paul's kitchen. The sky is cracked glass. It is a beautiful twilight, regardless the stain glass theme.

Peter Mollica. An architect's office at home. California, 1973. Note the scale of the window on the left, it is designed for the seating architect. Also see the organic design and the reflection of the stained glass on the wall. 

Terry Markarian. Autonomous hanging panel. I like the motif as a sun above, or even a sunset.

Ed Carpenter. Portland residence. This is the view of the window from the backyard. See how the pond edge continues up to the wall surrounding the window. Even in a different material, the continuity is obvious in the water that becomes the glass. I would have avoided the horizontal frame though, to emphasize the water concept.

Ed Carpenter. Untitled autonomous panel, 1976. Private collection, Portland, Oregon. I see it as a bright geometrical idea, the straight vertical lines of the bamboos behind and the circle above, closing the composition. Of course I am seeing it as only one single art composition, panel plus nature.

Michael Pollan on the storm of Versailles

 

The Royal Way or  Great Lawn of Versailles. Photo from http://en.chateauversailles.fr/discover/estate/gardens/walks#the-royal-way-or-great-lawn

I have read a couple of books by professor journalist Michael Pollan. The Botany of Desire is my favorite so far. It has interesting stories about trees and plants, but most important, he makes us reflect on certain environmental aspects. 

In the chapter "The Potato" (pages184-185 of the 2001 edition), he mentions the 1999 storm that severely damaged the gardens of Versailles and wonders if maybe a wilder design would have been better in order to speed up the restoration. 

The park devastated in December 1999. Photo from http://www.versailles3d.com/en/over-the-centuries/xxe/1999.html

The park devastated in December 1999. Photo from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/580176.stm

The park devastated in December 1999. Photo from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/581056.stm

Being so close to another anniversary of the event, let's read about it: "During the night of 25 to 26 December 1999, winds of 210 km/h blasted through Versailles for two hours. The morning of the 26th revealed scenes of devastation. Several dozens of windows in the Palace had been broken and various roofs had been blown off. But it was the park which had suffered the most. More than 10,000 of the 200,000 trees had been affected, having either been split or uprooted. All the avenues had suffered and some were even inaccessible. Among the damaged trees were 80 percent of the estate’s rare species, which had been destroyed, including several historic specimens such as the two tulip trees planted by Marie-Antoinette in 1783 in Trianon and the Corsican pine planted by Napoleon."

Source: http://en.chateauversailles.fr/discover/history/key-dates/storm-versailles-1999

A similar event had occurred on a lesser scale in 1990. No replanting had been carried out since SXIX and the two storms brought up the great deterioration of the plants. And so, the restoration began. 

Gardens of Versailles. Photo from http://www.chateauversailles.fr/decouvrir/domaine/jardins

Lake of the Swiss guard. Photo by Thomas Garnier. From http://en.chateauversailles.fr/discover/estate/park

This is Michael Pollan's reflection on the perfect geometry and man´s pride:

"In 1999 a freak December windstorm (...) laid waste to many of Andre Lenótre's centuries old plantings at Versailles, crumpling in a matter of seconds that garden's perfect geometries - perhaps as potent an image of human mastery as we have. When I saw the pictures of the wrecked allées, the straight lines scrabbled, the painterly perspectives ruined, it occurred to me that a less emphatically ordered garden would have been better able to withstand the storm's fury and repair itself afterward. So what are we to make of such a disaster? It all depends: on whether one regards that particular storm as a straight forward proof of our hubris and nature's infinitely superior power or, as some scientists now do, as an effect of global warming, which is adding to the atmosphere's instability. (....)

Ironies of this kind are second nature to the gardener, who eventually learns that every advance in his control of the garden is also an invitation to a new disorder. Wilderness might be reducible, acre by acre, but wildness is something else again. So the freshly hoed earth invites a new crop of weeds, the potent new pesticide engenders resistance in pests, and every new step in the direction of simplification -toward monoculture, say, or genetically identical plants- leads to unimagined new complexities." 

In support of Pollan´s words, I´ve found this article from The Guardian, 2000:

The following is an excerpt from Le Catastrophe:

"Still struggling to clear up from violent storms that killed 90 people and an oil spill that has covered 250 miles of its Atlantic beaches in stinking tar, battered France is beginning to realise the full extent of the damage. 

 The total bill from two nights of 100mph-plus gales that ravaged the country between Christmas and the new year could run to an astronomical £7.5 billion, according to estimates from industry, government agencies and insurance companies. 

The storms - described by the Interior Minister, Jean-Pierre Chevènement, as 'a catastrophe on a scale probably without precedent in post-war France' - caused massive damage to buildings, businesses and agriculture, as well as leaving eight million people without electricity for up to a week.

 Most visible, however, is the environmental damage. The French landscape has changed, particularly in the most devastated areas of the East and the South-west. The forests are ruined: between 260 million and 300 million trees have been destroyed - compared with 15 million in Britain in the gales of 1987.

 It will take up to two centuries to restore France's forests to their former glory, according to the National Forestry Office. 'All kinds of trees have been affected - century-old oaks are knocked over, young pines are broken, beeches, maples are hit,' said the office's secretary general, Jacques Descargues. 'In areas where all the trees have fallen to the ground we will have to recreate the entire forest, which means that in certain cases it will take 100 to 200 years. It's an enormous job."

The Zen Garden

 

Zen or Japanese rock garden at the Huntington Gardens and Library. Photo by Myriam Mahiques. Personal archives.

Zen or Japanese rock gardens are not designed for the pleasure of contemplating beauty or to generate intellectual thoughts. They are meant to be a metaphor of the Universe.

The following is an excerpt from the book Wabi Sabi. The Japanese Art of Impermanence (By Andrew Juniper). Chapter "Wabi Sabi in the Japanese Arts. Garden Design". From page 69-72:

Zen garden from Wikipedia. I like the combination of the rock garden and the trees, plants in the background. 

"Japan's first gardens were inspired mainly by Shinto beliefs and were initially no more than open gravel spaces where it was thought that kami, or spirits, would be encouraged to visit. To these simple beginnings were added rocks and trees where the kami were thought to reside. (...)

It was in this period that the ishitateso, "the monks who place stones," were given the task of designing temple gardens  using large rocks as their primary mode of expression. The reverence for the Chinese landscape pictures that came from the mainland during the Song dynasty found a voice in the garden designs of the Zen monks who used the themes of ethereal mountains and rivers to build their microcosmic gardens, known as karesansui.

Armed with a frugal selection of raw materials the monks sought to build worlds within worlds as their gardens became miniaturized versions of the cosmic order and their rocks took on the stature of mountains.  (....) By loosening the rigid sense of perception, the actual scales of the garden became irrelevant and the viewers were able to then perceive the huge landscapes deep within themselves. This expanse is a key aspect of Zen, and the nothingness that it symbolizes is not the same as the nothing we understand in the West. It is the indefinable infinite that both surrounds and lies within us. The solitary rock surrounded on all shores by a sea of gravel was synonymous with our own existential  position, not only with regard to our fellowman but also the eternity that envelops our very being. (....)

Just as our eyes only perceive the dry gravel streams, so our minds are missing the great river that courses through the fleeting world".  

When landscape is incorporated to arts

 

I came across a young artist, Eric, at the local park. He had extended a wrinkled plastic film between two pine trees to paint a blueish graffiti, which he was going to trash later on. I asked permission to take a few pictures and told him that it was very interesting to see the pine trunks and the grass behind. He looked at me in surprise, he was so focused on his art that he didn´t notice the trees and the enhanced green were part of it. He thanked me and said he was happy that I had a different point of view and perception of his art.

I suggested him to see what happened around 5PM in the Winter sunset, those trees have very hard beautiful shadows on the grass and the effect would be different.

Arts X 2= the painting plus the photograph with the landscape incorporated to it.

All photos by Myriam Mahiques. Personal archives. 2017.

Garden ornaments

 

Fall season decoration with squash. Sherman Gardens and Library. Photo by Myriam Mahiques. Personal archives

Halloween decoration against a palm tree. Sherman Gardens and Library. Photo by Myriam Mahiques. Personal archives.

There are lots of garden ornaments to select, little sculptures, birds feeders, fountains, statues, wind chimes, bird baths, rock arrangements, pots, etc.

They give dynamism and color. Materials to choose could be mosaics, stone, wood, metal, glass... My favorite objects are wind chimes that are relaxing and hanging glass pieces that reflect the sun and partially illuminate leaves and flowers with the glass colors.

Birds bath with colorful mosaics popping up among the leaves. From the book Feng Shui Garden Design (by Antonia Beattie). Photo by Leigh Clapp. Personal archives

This last Summer a bird fell dead in my yard due to the high temperatures. Consider water containers for the birds, even elements from the kitchen as a sort of "DIY". They will reciprocate with their beauty and songs. 

Just a shell in a cactus garden. Sherman Gardens and Library. Photo by Myriam Mahiques. Personal Archives.

Asian garden ornament. Huntington Gardens and Library. Photo by Myriam Mahiques. Personal archives.

Locate the ornaments in areas to provide "surprises" along trails, play with the idea of hiding them from view at times.  Frogs and birds ornaments are nice to be seen next to a pond or fountain. 

Two planters adjacent to an entrance staircase. See how overcrowded they look, the plants cannot be seen except for the larger ones on the left. Los Angeles. Photo by Myriam Mahiques. Personal archives.

Do not overuse ornaments as the garden will feel cluttered. Areas of "nothing" are significant as well. Keep the arrangements simple, following an integrated idea or subject. Very elaborated objects are related to the Academy, to Classicism (generally speaking); a simple object fading along the years, rocks, are part of spiritual gardens, Zen gardens, that invite our minds to explore, meditate, relax. 

Halloween season and Fall season garden decorations: all pictures taken by Myriam Mahiques. Personal archives.

I discovered this ghost behind the Impatients. Santa Ana Zoo.

Jack O'Lantern semi hidden behind the bamboos. Santa Anta Zoo.

Just shiny and translucent pieces of fabric with flowers around. Santa Ana Zoo.

Flowers and squash display. Sherman Gardens and Library.

Flowers and squash display. Sherman Gardens and Library. 2020.

Sometimes the garden ornaments are the plants in pots themselves. I have been in an open house in Irvine a couple of years ago and took these pictures of the rear yard landscape and hardscape design, not an ornament, it is an integral idea:

Hardscape-landscape design. Orchard Hills. Irvine. Photo by Myriam Mahiques. Personal archives.

Hardscape-landscape design. Orchard Hills. Irvine. Photo by Myriam Mahiques. Personal archives.

We think of Christmas decor as the Christmas tree. But see how beautiful it looks when the decoration is extensive to other trees and even vines in trellis: 

Christmas decoration. Sherman Gardens and Library. Photo by Myriam Mahiques.  Personal archives.

Christmas decoration. Sherman Gardens and Library. Photo by Myriam Mahiques.  Personal archives. 2020.

Christmas decoration. Sherman Gardens and Library. Photo by Myriam Mahiques.  Personal archives.

Wooden bird feeder hanging from a tree. Photo by Myriam Mahiques, 2020. Personal archives.