For those of you who have been regularly reading our news and updates, you might remember reading our art-alive story about our living canvas artworks. Where last time our living plants adorned the artworks, this time the plants were the artworks!
This was a popular activity for our residents who have kicked off 2018 with a new living project (our pet therapy programs notwithstanding of course). We have set to work on creating wall-mounted gardens to go around the home – bringing the outdoors in!
We’ve been cultivating succulents for months with the help of the residents and their work has paid off. We have harvested our efforts to create new artworks.
We refurbished some old picture frames, building a deep backing behind them, then sealed them with plastic and filled them with potting mix and soil. We finally covered it with a wire mesh. Then we set about laying out our art piece, plant by plant. We poked it in through the mesh, cutting it away as necessary for bigger plants and ‘voila’ – three wall mounted art pieces were created.
The residents had a great time picking the different succulents they wanted for their pieces. It was a case of trial and error to see which ones were best suited to the frame.
We have set the pieces aside to let the soil settle and allow the plants to get a better grip in their new vertical home. They will be mounted around the home shortly adding a burst of colour and live.
This project has created some great interactive pieces which is engaging for our residents. It is something they can see, feel, smell and interact with as they move about the home each day. It is an art that will continue to change and grow and also leads the way for new works to be created when we cultivate cuttings from each piece.
We’re very proud of the resident’s efforts as it is a whole new kind of gardening for them but they embraced it with enthusiasm and an open mind. As our courtyards is getting revamped at the moment, more gardening is on the way and this is the start of things to come.