Taft Gardens kicks off our 2022/23 Taft Art in Nature Residency Rotational Program with clay artist P. Lyn Middleton residing in our newly remodeled Protea Studio for a 4-week residency during the month of October. P. Lyn will develop a series entitled "Faux Thoreau makes Faux Rocks: 5 Daily Meditations at a Garden called Taft."
Before leaving her 27-year career in graphic design education, P.Lyn took up clay and hasn't stopped since. Her storefront P S P A C E (open from 2013-2017), a gallery on the east end of Ojai, became a stage to exhibit plates, bowls, drinking vessels, and tiny plates. A few pieces were recently on exhibition at the Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation group show, and you can explore her works at @pspaceplyn.
On one of her visits to Taft Gardens, she received the idea to make rocks. And since she already works with clay and has a love for rocks, the idea was a natural pairing. Both clay and natural rock undergo similar processes that involve the elements of earth, wind, and fire, as well as pressure. Through her residency, P.Lyn will explore rocks as an ancient manifestation of the planet and vessels as one of the first artifacts of human beings.
“The five daily meditations was my outline of how I would sculpt my time in the Taft environment,” P.Lyn said. “Making, meditating, walking, breathing, and visually documenting. The making of the rocks is meditative in itself — a simple work of basically joining two pinch pots. I have added sound to my faux rocks by making them hollow and added clay beads so that they rattle.”
P.Lyn hopes that visitors will see the connection and the irony in taking a rock outside of its usual context and placing it in an environment where it typically isn’t found, such as on a wall. She also hopes visitors will explore and imagine the myriad possibilities that can be created with faux rocks and their arrangement.
Copywriting: DeAnna Carpenter @shewhobuilds
Portrait: Marc Alt @marcaltphoto
Graphics: Louise Sandhaus @lulusandhaus