WHG News - July/August 2023

News from the Garden

Issue 11 I July/August 2023

Cooling off in summer heat.

Phew. The earth continues to shout its discontent. While we’re fortunate not to be suffering under the extreme temperatures that have hit other parts of the country, there is no doubt that it has been H O T at Western Hills Garden.

Thank goodness for our extraordinary microclimates. You can move from one spot to another and experience a 15-degree temperature shift. Instant natural cooling from tree shade and understory is essential when you need a break from tending all the things.

Our part-time staff, interns, and volunteers are hard at work. We’ve mulched and weeded nearly the entire garden, resurfaced the circle pond, put in a new lavender bed, and moved plants around to create more space.

When it’s time to relax, we seek out one of the many benches tucked throughout the property, have a cool drink, and gaze at the landscape. We encourage and invite all of you to try this practice next time you visit! Bring a book, a journal, or your sketchpad and find a spot to sit back and enjoy. Walking around is great. Sitting and absorbing is even better….

Artist acknowledgements.

Our inaugural arts and education programs have been a hit so far. The garden has served as an outdoor classroom for people to learn about color, play with cyanotype, collage with botanical palettes, draw with natural objects, practice journaling in nature, and discover the Japanese embroidery technique of sashiko. Folks have also made baskets and studied botany. We’re taking August off from programming and will return in September with more learning experiences (scroll down for details)!

Here’s a bit more about some of the artists and craftspeople who have shared their talents with us.

Rosy Petri was our first artist-in-residence. Her art fuses portraiture, storytelling, and textiles and she created the wonderful illustrations in the book Hadley co-authored with Lauren Schiller, It’s a Good Day to Change the World: Inspiration and Advice for a Feminist Future. Since her stay in early March coincided with an atmospheric river, she found downtime to write, play guitar, and cook (lucky us!).

Lena Wolff has taught two classes at Western Hills Garden so far (Color Theory and Sashiko), and we’re hoping she’ll come back for more! She is an interdisciplinary visual artist, craftswoman, and activist for democracy. Her broad interconnected artistic output includes drawing, collage, sculpture, text-based works, music and public projects. She and Hadley are collaborators on a multi-year national campaign called Dine for Democracy.

Jessica Williams co-taught our Contemplation and Mark Making with Natural Objects class along with mindfulness instructor Debi Gollan. She is coming back to WHG with artist Emily Payne this fall to begin a creative investigation into BioEuphoria—a term she invented that explores the relationship artists have in direct, sustained observation of nature – one that with practice can build a sense of a true reciprocal connection.

Kim Bennett is an artist and educator who teaches at the California College of the Arts. She led our first creative expression class using the collage style of Mary Delaney. Kim’s fine art ranges from abstract painting to embroidery and delicate floral still lifes. She has exhibited her work widely, received numerous awards and commissions, and worked with Hadley on a public art project during the pandemic called Intersections.

Natalie Joy Tremblay is a cyanotype artist working from her home studio in Santa Rosa. Deeply inspired by nature, her art journey has always been centered around botanical design. Over the past few years, she has solely focused on the cyanotype process and using fresh foliage to create unique pieces of original art. Her workshop participants chose plants and flowers from Western Hills to make their own designs.

Kate Rutter is an avid nature journaler, urban naturalist, educator, and native plant enthusiast. Her education work spans online teaching; corporate and nonprofit workshops; conferences and events; and nature journal workshops at public gardens, private gardens, and nurseries. She also serves as adjunct professor at the California College of the Arts. Her inspiring WHG class deepened participant insights into plants, trees, and place.

We’re are now planning Western Hills Garden programming for the rest of this year and starting to look out to 2024. If you or someone you know is interested in teaching a class please reach out via the form below. We will continue to offer classes in three areas: creative expression, horticulture, and wellness.

TEACHER INQUIRY FORM

September classes + experiences.

Milwaukee-based artist, KT Mullen, will be in residence at Western Hills Garden for two weeks in September finishing up a book project. She will be giving a talk about her work on 9/15 from 6-7:30 pm. She will also teach a class for kids (and their adults) to inspire creativity and wonder through natural exploration on 9/23 from 10-11:30 am.

Jennifer Stuart has worked as an artist and educator for over 30 years and has authored and edited two publications on arts education. We are excited for her Curiosity in the Garden class on 9/16 from 10-2pm. Participants will explore how a place can instigate creativity – accessing the power of the garden to open to curiosity and creative inquiry using conventional and unconventional artistic materials.

LEARN MORE AND SIGN UP

Shout outs.

Welcome to a new section of the newsletter where we talk about organizations and assorted things we’re interested in.

We recently got the chance to meet up with the leaders of Nature Sacred and to grab a copy of their new book, Benchtalk: Wisdoms Inspired by Nature. Since, as previously mentioned, we are very into benches at Western Hills Garden, we were thrilled to learn about this project.

The book is filled with curated journal entries thoughtfully left by visitors of Sacred Places, tranquil nature spaces designed to promote peace and well-being. The weatherproof, yellow journals that capture the entries are tucked in specially designed benches found in the more than 100 dedicated Sacred Places around the country

The collector’s edition, out now, is gorgeous, and a paperback edition releases in October. The book is a testament to what happens when we pause, if only for a moment, in nature.

LEARN MORE ABOUT NATURE SACRED AND BENCHTALK

Our mission.

Western Hills Garden is a fiscally-sponsored nonprofit public garden. Our mission is to link people, plants, and place with possibility and purpose. We offer self-guided visits, tours, and classes + workshops. We are testing out some short-term artist residency opportunities, and planning to pilot environmental education for schools, site-specific, temporary art installations, and partnership programming with other nonprofits.

We hope you are able to come visit us as the seasons change, the days shorten, and the leaves turn.

As always, your membership purchases and tax-deductible donations help us preserve and steward the garden and demonstrate community support. Thank you for reading.

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