Sculptural forms that are designed for the most intimate of spaces.
By Annette Hinkle
When it comes to shape and form in the garden, the focus, naturally, is most often on the different plant species that bring diversity, texture and color to the environment.
But in cultivated outdoor spaces there is also room for human-made forms — especially sculptural elements. While historically there has been an assumption that sculpture in the garden equates palatial grounds with giant pieces dominating the landscape, Noyac artist Carol Ross has a different take on the art form and has even come up with a term for it — intimate garden sculpture.
“I Googled intimate garden sculpture and it doesn’t exist,” says Ross. “Most sculpture is grand – you see it from afar and it has a big presence in the landscape — in some ways it is separate from the landscape. But my sculpture fits into the whole arrangement of the garden. It’s a very different concept and very personal.”
“Though they can be put up in public, the scale is a human scale,” adds Ross whose sculptures can be managed by one person and fit nicely in the back of an SUV. “Most of my pieces are 65 to 84 inches — the same height as you and I.”
This Sunday Ross will take part in a panel discussion at the Peconic Land Trust’s Bridge Gardens in Bridgehampton. The event is the last of the 2011 Winter Lecture Series offered by the Land Trust and the Madoo Conservancy and the focus will be on the creation, collection and placement of sculpture in the garden. Joining Ross will be sculptor James DeMartis and Arlene Bujese, Curator in Residence for the Southampton Cultural Center’s Levitas Art Gallery.
In the warm months Ross spends three to four hours a day in her own garden and the abstract sculptural forms she creates for outdoor spaces seem to be an extension of her gardening style itself.
“I’m a big perennial gardener,” says Ross. “I lean toward naturalistic gardening and have a vast array of plants — whatever looks good I put out there.”
Ross’s sculptures, both their color and size, are also inspired by her modest property in the Pine Neck neighborhood of Noyac, where scale is everything.
“Everything is so compacted here. My garden leads to the house from narrow strips on the side and down to the beach,” she explains. “It’s a dream come true — a modest house with a spectacular 180 degree view of Noyac Bay.”
Though Ross has been a painter and sculptor for years, her earlier work was primarily designed for indoor display. It was just last winter that she began creating brightly colored sculptures designed to stand up to the great outdoors.
“Gardening is a really important thing to me. I suspect that a lot of the color in my work comes with gardening,” she adds. “You feed yourself as an artist and I feed myself with gardening. I also look at the work of other artists, ancient sculpture, pottery, jewelry — anything beautiful I pack in me and it comes out in its own way.”
For Ross, the key to discovering the ideal artistic form for the garden came from understanding her own space and its design as a curving sculptural object all it’s own that naturally leads people from one area to another. Though she’s been asked why she doesn’t make larger work, Ross stresses she’s content with where her sculpture is right now.
“That’s what I like the most, putting it in a small intimate garden to please myself,” she says. “I’m only thinking of the sculpture. I’ve established the scale I’m most comfortable working in. Though someday I may accept it two or three times what it is, for now, it’s right.”
Finding what’s right is really the key to any art form in the garden, notes Rick Bogush, garden manager at Bridge Gardens.
“In picking sculpture for the garden, it has to appeal to you — if it’s your decision,” notes Bogush. “What appeals to me is the texture of the material, the sort of unusual use of the material. Metal appearing to be soft and folded is not what you would expect — and a little of the unexpected is good.”
Bogush admits he was not always that intereted in sculpture in the garden. But since a show last summer at Bridge Gardens which featured the work of Ross and eight other artists, he has come to see it in a new light.
“It’s opened my eyes,” he says. “Being involved in placement with the sculptures in last year’s exhibition was a learning experience. I worked with the person who put the exhibit together and one of the sculptors. We were like minded but reached a consensus for each piece and location. You treat it like a museum where each piece has its space. You want to pick a piece that doesn’t overwhelm a space or under whelm a sculpture.”
“The colorful ones by Carol Ross were there a short time, then they left,” says Bogush. “I was sad to see them leave. They reminded me of people and I miss them.”
Other pieces by James DeMartis remain on view throughout the five acre property and Bogush now views them as a part of the landscape.
“I’m more a plant guy who has gotten used to the idea of objects in the garden,” he confesses. “It took a while to get used to it. Now I would lean toward sculpture in the garden rather than an urn or one of those kinds of things — especially if I can’t plant the urn.”
On Sunday, March 20 from 1 to 3 p.m., The Winter Lecture Series at Bridge Gardens with Arlene Bujese, James DeMartis and Carol Ross will be offered at Bridge Gardens, 36 Mitchell Lane, Bridgehampton. The lecture is free to members of Bridge Gardens or Madoo Conservancy and $15 for all others. Space is limited. To reserve, call Robin Harris at 283-3195.
Above Split Tower sculpture by Carol Ross
