A Garden is an Event

A reader, an artwork, a napkin, a plant, and a dinner inspired by stones, stories and impermanence. 

A Garden is an Event invited sixteen people to gather in a garden and to be inspired by rocks, stones, stories and impermanence. The evening unfolded in delightful ways. Folks were welcomed with a drink and invited to give the ‘rock with a special meaning’ they brought, a title and to add it to the stone museum.

Next we moved to the dining table, filled with a host of real and edible rocks. We had stone soup, talked about ideas as we shared the reader, and took an intermission to gather our stones. As the main stone-looking course was served, people took turns sharing the stories of their special stones. The stories were funny, touching and made us think about time and place.

One heavy and tall rock belonged to a grandmother in Bulgaria, and maybe the grandmother before her. The rock, a much-loved grinding tool made a long trek to the United States and now resides in the granddaughter’s kitchen in Portland. As Tatiana shared the story of the rock, she moved it in her palm, in a familiar circular motion of grinding that showed how deeply its use is intertwined with her memory of home. She then surprised us by offering an eggplant dip that she created for us using her grandmother’s rock. 

We then moved on to stone-appearing desserts served up on slate platters—various brownies, little brown macaroons, stone candy, chocolate truffles, and chocolate pop rocks! As we ate we shared an artwork for each person, that contained a sun stone and moon dust (with certificates of authenticity inside). Folks were also gifted a stone plant.. and invited to take their stone-themed napkin and rock salt!

When I hold you

I hold hands and I cook with my grandma and my mom. 

*A tool to smash and grind anything in the kitchen.     

Tatiana

More Information

Stones, rocks, collections, ideas, words! We got so excited by so many texts for this project. Some we included in the reader. Below is a glimpse into those inspiring authors and books.

The Pebbles on the Beach, A Spotters Guide. Clarence Ellis (excerpt included in reader)

Landmarks. Robert Macfarlane. A celebration of the language of landscape and the power of words to shape our sense of place (excerpt in reader)

Reading the Rocks. Jenny Odell. (Emergence Magazine link)

Weird Rocks. Michele Corriel (2013)

The Story of Stone Soup. Here is one animated version.

Rocks that look like food (inspiration for booklet)

And a beautiful old book of mining marble in Sicily that is Rory’s. It made me wonder about my mother-in-law’s family and the marmo mine that had on Mt. Etna.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to my friend Rory Sparks for inviting me to collaborate. Find out more about her beautiful work here.

Also thanks to those special folks who lent a hand, yes that is you Molly, Mike and Sarah! And to the folks who brought a special stone and enjoyed the evening in a garden with us!

A Garden is an Event is supported in part by a grant from RACC.