Maymont Park

Maymont is a gorgeous park that man has put its influence on. Maymont Foundations says "The story of Maymont began in 1893, when a wealthy Richmond couple, James and Sallie Dooley, completed their elaborate Gilded Age estate on a site high above the James River. Upon their deaths and according to their wishes, Maymont—including its architectural complex, the 100-acre landscape, and a collection of exquisite furnishings—was left to the people of Richmond."

Some may comment is a park earth art? I believe Maymont has wonderful earth art embedded in it. In Overlay, it quotes Robert Smithson saying "Parks are idealizations of nature, but nature in fact is not a condition of the ideal... Nature is never finished... Parks are finished landscapes for finished art. The museums and parks are graveyards above ground." However, I agree with writer of Overlay, Lucy Lippard, in that the mounds, circles, rows, and shelters of stone that have survived prehistoric "gardens" offer a framework for looking as "sculpture gardens" in museums, parks, bank plazas, or private estates. And in that "indoor sculptures in semi-public spaces deny the continuity with nature, site, and community that is a necessity for a living art." Many of the pictures below capture earth art and others just incaptured me and thought you would enjoy as well.

Maymont will always be special to be because this is where my husband proposed to me last March.

more pics of final project

Ana Mendieta's piece that inspired me.

Final Project: My imprint on Earth; Freedom, Harmony and Unity

My idea was to create something that was eco-friendly. I wanted to create art while at the same time have it be usefull to nature. One of Ana Mendieta's silloute pieces inspired me. Ana Mendieta created a raft or float with a silloute of a woman in flower pedals and pushed it down the river.

My piece shown here is a raft built out of logs and willow tree branches. On the raft I painted a bird in peanut butter, covered it with bird seed, and released it into the lake. Birds are such interesting creatures that play many important diverse roles in nature, religion, and culture.

I made two rafts (small and big) Check out the video footage as the smaller raft enters the lake.

With the war still going on, I wanted to create another piece of work to symbolize harmony and unity. This was made using a variety of rocks.