Studio Notes: The Garden Path

Detail of "An Angel Fragment" (in process) by Tamlin Blake

I think we all have our particular distractions and mine is working in my garden. Finally as the weather cools enough to entice me out of my home, and out of a summer hibernation of sort, my moments of procrastination are spent outside trying to bring some control to my overgrown garden.

Recently I spent hours digging around looking for the stone boarders to a path I had set down four years ago. The paths radiate from a central circle and form the structure of this part of the garden in which I wanted to reclaim a little formality. Slowly I uncovered one stone at a time and was surprised to find that the old pattern holds true. Each stone was there where it should be and where it had been placed before nature and various garden activities helped to blur the edges.

Rediscovering stones made me aware that there are other patterns that have become quietly overgrown, structural paths set down for my tapestry work for example.  All through the hot summer I put my head down and worked faithfully following some long ago decided plan. I thought little about it, just did the work and ticked off the hours. Now after spending a little time  reassessing the project as a whole, it is exciting to establish that there is in fact a structure. I have had to prune back ideas and fancies that have crept in but on the whole  I find myself reassured, and perhaps slightly in awe, that I was the one that put it all in place.

Re-establishing the framework has been invigorating and also a constructive exercise before burying myself once again in a new tapestry  in which I can continue to dance with my personal angels and demons and trust that the paths will keep me on the straight and narrow.
 

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