Wednesday, April 14, 2010

The Secret (abandoned) Garden



I've been coveting the abundant flowers at an abandoned house near mine. Unfortunately, I didn't get many good pictures. I may try again. The place is overrun with flowers and no one is tending them. I won't be taking any, though, since they do not belong to me--but sometimes people dump stuff on top of them and kill them, which seems such a shame and a waste.

Here is a new digital art piece I did yesterday called "Plaid Man":

Click image to view larger.

And here is a sketch for a kid's book:

Hi. My name is Mary. I am eight and a half years old. I want to be
famous. Today I decide to be a famous artist. My Mom lets me use her
paints. I paint a picture of myself. I am looking at a picture my
father took of me, and I am wearing the same green and red bathrobe
over my Pajamas. But you can't see the color in the photo. My
painting doesn't look exactly like me. Mom says it's called "artistic
license."

The little black and white white photo is me when I was 8.

9 comments:

B SQUARED said...

You look just like you did at 8.

Mason Canyon said...

Lovely flowers. It would be hard not to take care of them if they're abandoned. Love the sketch, so cute.

Mason
Thoughts in Progress

Rose said...

I can't help but wonder who owns the place...every now and then on our drives, out in the middle of nowhere we will see daffodils and we know that at sometime or other a home stood there.

Glimmer said...

That's a shame about the neglected flowers at the abandoned house. My father used to ask permission to take daffodil bulbs from abandoned/burned homesites on farmland, etc., and replanted them across the front of our acreage. Gorgeous! Those old bulbs produced the most beautiful daffs in town.

Maybe you could find out who owns the property and ask if you could take a few things to save them. Say you'll reshare when someone moves back in. Put it that way.

A neighbor sold her house and asked could she take some hostas and the tree her MIL put in as a gift, a very tiny tree. The new owners said no. Then they neglected the place and the tree, several rose bushes, and most of the hostas died, despite my efforts (it was a very hot summer and they took months to move in, so I trained my hose on it over the fence). Then when they moved in, they allowed the dogs to use the back space as a bathroom, killing the rest of the greenery.

I wish, now, that my neighbor and I had just committed a green guerrilla action, taken much of it in the night!

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

Thanks, B, don't I wish!!!

I would love to take care of the flowers, but the man who lives next door owns the property. I tried to buy it from him, but he wasn't interested in selling it--I don't feel that I have a right to care for them, (to say nothing of taking any), but it saddens me when he dumps things on top of them (or other people do).

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

Glimmer, you must have been commenting while I was, because I didn't see your response earlier.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

Sometimes I consider drastic actions for the sake of the plants, especially while a pile of dirt is just dumped on top of them--still--it seems wrong to steal. And the guy who owns the property is int he gardening business, I think. so one would think he might be interested in the plants. Which makes me nervous to ask.

Wolynski said...

Love the Plaid Man - looks like 21st century art.

The little girl sketch is adorable.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

"sposed to be me when I was young. Thanks--I wanted to make a book but I never seem to have time.