New Harmony

I got down to New Harmony for the weekend. I noticed that there would be an "Art Stoll" - of gallery openings on Saturday - so it seemed like an esp. good weekend to meet a friend there - get away and see some art.

On my way I stopped at the plant sale (fundraiser) for the Southern Indiana Daylily, Hosta, Daffodil & Iris Society and got some daylily starts. Daylilies are great because they are easy to grow and I love how they look. (I used to paint paintings of them). I had a great time choosing various colors that I could assemble a new garden with - so much so that someone said that "I" was an inspiration. But what I was doing was nothing compared to whoever organized the event and got all of the daylily starts organized by color and tagged with information about whether the plants bloomed earlier or later in the season - and that sort of thing. And the people helping out were great.

I was thinking on my drive down to Evansville/New Hamony how fun it is to "paint" with plants. I felt that way when I bought wildflower seeds by the pound and was scattering them strategically around the prepared dirt that we had tilled (I'll do a post just on that soon...) and it's similar with the daylilies. There are so many colors to choose from. I actually like the orange wild daylilies ( I need to get some of them - I used to have lots) - but it is fun to have lots of colors as well. And I got some white ones that will hopefully bloom late next May. :)

New Harmony (official site here) is a place where gardening is an art. The public gardens are wonderful - as well as all of gardens around so many of the houses and businesses. The gardens add to the sense that simplicity and spirituality - along with art - are more appreciated there than in a lot of places. There is the history - the utopian vision of the Rappites as well as the Owens - and it's nice to get back (I lived there one summer - taking art classes) and see that people are carrying on the vision in some sense or other.

I especially enjoyed the Art shows at the Women's Institute and Gallery - "Looking deeply into Tea" (photography and poems) - as well as The New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art with an exhibit by Kathryn Waters "At Home and Abroad". Good places to run into artists that I knew from the area.

It was a good weekend to reconnect with friends and art and gardens and all sorts of inspirations.