Artist Statement
For many years I visited communities where people with a range of mental and physical abilities lived together. All of these communities had gardens — often beautiful and strange combinations of wild flowers and weeds. The gardens looked like what the homes felt like. I photographed facing the plants directly, my large format camera balanced in the grass. I wanted to convey the powerful delicacy of the gardens—for them to feel strange and strong yet fragile and exposed.
I overlaid the photographs with different shades of blue sourced from medical supplies. Blue is the color of most things medical: gloves, gowns, and handicapped parking spaces. It is the color of the Virgin Mary, the sky, cold hands, and depression. Blue is infrequent in nature—less than 10 percent of flowers in nature are technically blue. Blue is the hardest color for the human eye to perceive.
Included in this exhibition are some of the books and writings that were foundational for the project.