May 2020 Report from the Studio at the Farm

Hello Gardening through Art friends!

What a season we are in! 🌍 I would be remiss not to mention that the gardens of the planet need us now more than ever! My gratitude extends to you, people of the earth, for taking necessary steps at this time to resume creativity and stewardship in a way that has the potential to heal Earth.  Inspiration and stewardship encourage compassion, creativity, building rich soils to grow healthy food, enjoyable plants, filter air and water, sequester carbon, and increase endorphins to experience joy.

We live in the garden and planet need us now more than ever! Our state of planetary pandemic released some undue feelings of invincibility, to say the least. Creative souls, as we are, it is our ecological duty to serve our place - at least as well as it has served us. If that is the only reciprocity we were taught thus far, it is exactly the least we can do as evolved stewards of this incredible planet. 

Humans, although we often have the unproductive feeling of guilt weighing on us when we imagine ourselves "at the top of the food chain" (better not get started). We could instead up to make peace with ourselves among the plants, birdsongs, and nutrients in the soil. Not the types of nutrients from a plastic canister, but the types are grandparents were built of, great greats, and so on. The type that lacks 60% than it did when our grandparents were our age.

The fact is that those who evolved into our species eat mostly weeds, the kind that grow where they are supposed to be and have full capacity to soak up their survival needs, creature comforts of suitable nutrients in rich soil, sweet sunshine, perfectly timed rain, and natures gift of pollinators.

Those humans evolved to meet the needs of continuing the species, obviously, and so shall we! 

#gardeningthroughart

We invite you to check out our new Course Catalog!
Schedule (subject to change)

• Botanical Arts Thursdays (10-11 a.m. PST, drop-in, $15/day) We use simple materials (pencils, pens, crayons) to explore the garden. These 60-minute workshops are intended to be fun, and no experience is necessary. 
  • May 21 - crayon rubbings + leaf shapes
  • May 28 - herbs + Spencerian penmanship
  • June 4 - intro to brush lettering (watercolor + round brush)
  • June 11 - strawberries - 3D & details
  • June 18 - summer produce + textures
  • June 25 - floral lettering
  • (further schedule TBA, content requests are welcome)
• Garden Watercolor Fridays (10 a.m.-noon. PST, monthly course, $25/day) These are ongoing monthly courses to experiment with watercolors to express the essence of plants.
  • June 5, 12, 19, 26 - June Flora + techniques
  • July 3, 10, 17, 24, 31- July Flora + techniques
  • August 7, 14, 21, 28- August Flora + techniques
• Seasonal Saturday Workshops (10 a.m.-noon. PST, monthly drop-in, $25/day) 
  • June 6 - Colored Pencils + Produce
  • August - Floral Watercolor 

• Tuition is paid by the Honor System. We gratefully accept contributions to our Heritage Farm Fund via Venmo (no fees!), PayPal, Square, or by personal check to Joyful Plant PO Box 802 Belfair, WA 98528 
• Membership - Tuition entitles participant to the applicable month's access of resources through Joyfulplant.com/members. (Pw: garden) We encourage you to share your progress via IG #gardeningthroughart

 I look forward to gardening together! 

♥  Elise

joyfulplant.com