Back in October Pam (
Digging) and I spent almost three hours wandering around the
John Fairey Garden in Hempstead, Texas. It wasn't until we'd just about finished and headed to the nursery to do a little shopping, that we finally saw the recently installed mosaic mural created by
Dixie Friend Gay...
: "John Fairey commissioned this mural for his garden in Hempstead TX. The smalti mosaic piece is a landscape depicting the vibrant exotic and native plants found on the grounds. Some of the plants shown in the mosaic were lost due to the freeze in February, 2021. The artwork is representative of the garden that John created."
It continues: "Established by John Fairey in 1971, The John Fairey Garden (formerly Peckerwood Garden) is an extraordinary preservation garden on 39 acres near Hempstead, Texas. The garden is widely acclaimed for the originality of its design, its education and conservation programs, and its exceptional collection of over 3,000 plants, including many endangered and rare plants from Mexico, North America, and Asia."
According to
this article from the Garden Conservancy the piece is "seven feet tall and 24 feet long" and "features plants and animals of the garden created with roughly 100,000 pieces of glass"
I loved it. Where as many painted murals leave me cold, I've always been in awe of a tile or glass mosaic. Of course the subject matter of this piece also makes it a winner in my eyes.
Make sure you hunt this down if you visit the garden, it's just slightly off the beaten path. Oh—and if you're wondering, no, you did not miss my post (or more likely posts) on the garden, I haven't yet delved into my over 200 photos to start narrowing down and editing them—until now.
All material © 2009-2022 by Loree Bohl for
danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.
