{"id":3126,"date":"2016-01-18T15:01:48","date_gmt":"2016-01-18T15:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.siteandinsight.com\/?p=3126"},"modified":"2016-01-18T15:01:48","modified_gmt":"2016-01-18T15:01:48","slug":"shadows-on-my-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/shadows-on-my-mind\/","title":{"rendered":"Shadows on my Mind"},"content":{"rendered":"

January has brought some bright blue-sky\u00a0days, with strong sunlight casting shadows on the snow. These dark lines\u00a0are a common winter sight in Quebec, and in my garden Glen Villa, in Quebec’s Eastern Townships.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Tree

Tree trunks cast shadows across the snow. I could say the shadows are like lines on a blank page, except that they aren’t.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Usually, these shadows are simply a visual\u00a0echo of the real thing, but occasionally they appear more substantial than the object itself. A bench with an\u00a0open-work seat becomes\u00a0solid in its shadow.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"shadows,

Ok, I know that the side of the bench is shadowed, \u00a0not the top. Even so, I was surprised by the contrast.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Shadows offer opportunities in garden design that few of us take full advantage of. An ordinary sight can become mysterious when it is patterned with shadows.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Shadows

Shadows crisscrossing make this road at Naumkeag more inviting that it would be without them.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Shadows can create many different moods and responses. They can be inviting, or repellant, or downright scary.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"A

A low fence in The Garden of Cosmic Speculation becomes a shadowy weapon towards the end of the day, when shadows are long.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They can even be amusing, or at least more interesting than the thing itself.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"This

This shadow of tree branches reminds me of a multi-legged insect dancing across the grass.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Shadows are a crucial part of In Transit\/En Route<\/em>, an art installation\u00a0I created in 2011. (It’s an artwork to be experienced rather than explained, but if you want to know more, you can read about it here,<\/a> and here<\/a>, and here<\/a>.) A path leads to a\u00a0clearing in the woods where the shadow of a dead tree marks the hour. In summer the shadow’s mark is accurate. Not in winter, though — shadows ignore Daylight Savings Time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Shadows

The shadow of the tall tree in the background falls onto posts painted with red lines. The number of lines indicates\u00a0the hour.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The idea of a shadow is integral to Tree Rings<\/em>, my most recent sculpture. The tree that was, is no more. But its shadow remains, both literally and figuratively.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Tree

The different widths of stainless steel bands\u00a0that circle the tree trunk suggest the way the tree grew, more in good years, less in bad.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Three words laser-cut into the stainless steel rings make this idea explicit.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Seed,

Seed, Shade, Shadow: the life of this tree in three simple words.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Shadows aren’t substantial. They don’t last, they come and go with the sun. But\u00a0while they aren’t always present, they still can have a lasting\u00a0effect.<\/p>\n

Do shadows play a part in your garden? Have you used them\u00a0deliberately or are their effects accidental?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

January has brought some bright blue-sky\u00a0days, with strong sunlight casting shadows on the snow. These dark lines\u00a0are a common winter sight in Quebec, and in my garden Glen Villa, in Quebec’s Eastern Townships.     Usually, these shadows are simply a visual\u00a0echo of the real thing, but occasionally they appear more substantial than the object…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,24,38],"tags":[37,39,392,459],"class_list":["post-3126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","category-design","category-glen-villa","tag-glen-villa","tag-in-transiten-route","tag-shadows","tag-tree-rings","category-34","category-24","category-38","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}