A landscape of a painting.Most people have seen landscape paintings-paintings depicting scenic views of natural landscapes. But how many people have seen a landscape of a painting? There may be only once place where one can go to see this: the Old Deaf School Deaf School was a late 1970s band from Liverpool, UK. Their style was somewhere in between pub rock, punk and art rock. They disbanded after their third album. Their members carried on in music business; singer Bette Bright went solo, Clive Langer became a producer, Steve Lindsey Park in downtown Columbus Downtown Columbus is the Central Business District of Columbus, Ohio, United States. The area centers around the intersection of Broad Street and High Street, and is the home of most of the largest buildings in Columbus. , Ohio. On the site where there once stood a school for the deaf, artist James T. Mason is creating his own version of Georges Seurat's famous painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (French: Un dimanche après-midi à l'Ile de la Grande Jatte) is Georges Seurat's most famous work, and is an example of pointillism that is widely considered to be one of the . Mason is recreating Seurat's painting in three-dimensions using topiary topiary Art of training living trees and shrubs into artificial, decorative shapes. Topiary is known to have been practiced in the 1st century AD. The earliest topiary was probably the simple development of edgings, cones, columns, and spires to accent a garden scene. . Topiary is the art of trimming and training shrubs into shapes they would not ordinarily take. Mason, an accomplished sculptor and art teacher for the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department, spent months designing and welding welding, process for joining separate pieces of metal in a continuous metallic bond. Cold-pressure welding is accomplished by the application of high pressure at room temperature; forge welding (forging) is done by means of hammering, with the addition of heat. sturdy bronze armatures to contain the yews. The tallest figure stands 12' (3.66 m) high and was so heavy it took several people using construction equipment to install it in the ground. A Work in Progress Sometimes art can't be rushed. it took Seurat two years to paint his masterpiece using oil on canvas. Mason and his wife and artistic collaborator Elaine, have been painstakingly pruning pruning, the horticultural practice of cutting away an unwanted, unnecessary, or undesirable plant part, used most often on trees, shrubs, hedges, and woody vines. and tying branches of their living sculptures since 1989 and expect the steadily growing figures to be fully filled in by 1998. Although yew yew, name for evergreen trees or shrubs of the genus Taxus, somewhat similar to hemlock but bearing red berrylike fruits instead of true cones. Of somber appearance, with dark green leaves, the yew since antiquity has been associated with death and funeral plants are hardy, the Masons must work diligently to keep them healthy despite freezing winters and summer droughts. Although visitors are free to roam among the topiaries, the best view of Mason's Topiary Garden is on a knoll overlooking the park. From this point, the topiaries represent the view Seurat provided in his painting. There are fifty topiary people in all. Some are strolling, playing or relaxing on the lawn. The woman walking a monkey on a leash is there, as arc three frolicking dogs. A pond represents the Seine River Seine River ancient Sequana Second longest river in France. It rises on the Langres plateau, 18 mi (30 km) northwest of Dijon, and flows through Paris before emptying into the English Channel at Le Havre after a course of 485 mi (780 km). shown in Seurat's painting. There are eight topiary boats, including a steamboat steamboat: see steamship. steamboat or steamship Watercraft propelled by steam; more narrowly, a shallow-draft paddle-wheel steamboat widely used on rivers in the 19th century, particularly the Mississippi River and its tributaries. , sailboat and scull with four rowers. You may want to talk about this unique artwork in class, use it to stimulate studio projects (a topiary garden on the schoolyard perhaps?), or relate it to other subjects. Here are some questions and suggested activities to get you started. Questions and Projects 1. Why do you think the subject of Seurat's painting would have been appealing to the Columbus Recreation and Parks department? 2. Do you think Mason's Topiary Garden can be considered an original work of art? 3. Mason said, "Nature has always been a source of inspiration to the artist, and the relationship between art and life is an ongoing concern." How can a work of art like this add life to an urban community? Can it affect the way we think about nature? How might it change the way people think about art? 4. Locate a color reproduction of Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Do a critical analysis of the painting-describe its subject matter, analyze its composition and the artist's technique, and interpret its significance for Seurat's original audience in 1880s France, and for us today. Compare your conclusions with a similar analysis of Mason's Topiary Garden. 5. Work with your school's history and science teachers to learn more about topiary gardens around the world and processes for growing and training shrubs. |
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