For the last week of the year, we are revisiting our five most popular blog posts of 2010. Number 2 is from Living is Giving week and involves Stacey's gift pick, the beautiful book, Place for the Spirit: Traditional African American Gardens. Perfect timing, too, if you're looking to spend a gift certificate to a bookstore!
Every year, dozens of books cross our desks (a real perk of this job!) but my hands-down favorite of 2010 was Places for the Spirit: Traditional African American Gardens by photographer Vaughn Sills. For nearly 10 years, Sills traveled the South visiting gardeners and the spaces they created. The beautiful photographs she took during this period showcase the vision, creativity, and soul that her subjects have poured into their gardens. From the book's press release:
In the spirit of “outsider” art traditions, the roots of blues music, and other folk manifestations, these gardens have a unique aesthetic and cultural significance. The gardens are places to socialize and be creative, but they also have mystical purposes: bottles and plant pots are placed vertically in the ground to allow the spirit of ancestors to communicate with the living. In the deceptively casual or whimsical arrangements are subtle and symbolic reminders of the divine in everyday life and the cycles of the natural world.
Places for the Spirit would make a fantastic gift for gardeners, artists, photography lovers, history buffs, book lovers, culture junkies, collectors, and the insatiably curious. Here's a sample of some of the gorgeous images in the book, generously shared by the publisher, Trinity University Press (all photographs copyright by Vaughn Sills):
1 Jules Landry Garden, St. James, Louisiana, 2005.
2 Herman Thompson garden, Jenkensville, South Carolina, 2005.
3 Leon Goldsberry garden, Edwards, Mississippi, 2001.
4 Martha Pearl Moore, Philomath, Georgia, 1992.
5 Alfred Lee Johnson garden, Eutaw, Alabama, 2001.
6 Annie Belle Sturgehill garden, Athens, Georgia, 1988.
7 James Cox, Oglethorpe, Georgia, 1987.
8 L.V. Hull garden, Kosciusko, Mississippi, 2001.
9 Pearl Fryar garden, Bishopville, South Carolina, 2002. This reminds me of another gift suggestion: the outstanding documentary made about Pearl's garden, A Man Named Pearl.
From: Jim/ArtofGardening.org | 12/30/10 at 6:07 pm
I missed this post earlier in the year. Gardens remind me of a couple community gardens here in Buffalo that feel more like folk art than a manicured garden.
From: Vaughn Sills | 1/7/11 at 10:15 am
Thank you so much for including my book here -- I feel honored! It was such an exciting and satisfying experience photographing and learning about these beautiful gardens, I am grateful to hear that others are appreciating the gardens as much as I do.
May 2011 be filled with beauty, Vaughn