Sneak Preview of the Spirited Gardener

Here's a taste of our fist show about Labyrinths and Mazes. The Quicktime logo will indicate that the file is downloading to the page. Press play to view the video.

Pam Parker had told my husband, Ben Hollis, “You’ve got to see this, you’ll love it, join me.” And so we did.  I admit to some reluctance on my part to join in but when I arrived I was immediately a convert.  Live social networking that is entertaining and above all about celebrating being creative and investigating the many ways that we as humans interact with our world.  Every three months 10 to 12 people are given the opportunity to share a little piece of their world with about 250 other people.  The process of Life is the main theme here.  Be it internal or as a project that covers so many square feet of Earth, PechaKucha stirs up life in a unique way that directs our thinking to new places.  Hooray. 

On the first night, Decemeber 3, 2008 we entered Martyr’s early.  The show was to start at 8:00 pm but Pam said get there early for a seat.  As the first presentation began the large screen on the stage filled with colors and a voice began to speak with passion for what they were sharing.  Ah Life!  One woman spoke of how to have a good marriage, another man spoke of his work and an artist presented the relationship of the shape of Lake Michigan to a certain male appendage and another person spoke of their work with The Southshore Cultural Center. 

Pam introduced Ben and I to Peter and we had a short and raucous exchange before the show began.  Now we flash to two months later in February.  Peter and I meet for lunch and talk about the creative process, his zoo project and my love of nature.  It was an enjoyable networking lunch and then we each went back to our work lives. 

March 3rd, 2009, PechaKucha Night shows again with a new crew of people.  Again the evening is divine in its diversity.  We all laughed and cried and enjoyed meeting new people.  Horizons were expanded.  Peter said hello and mentioned that I had signed up to do a presentation at the first event I had visited and was I still interested.  Sure I said.  And now the time is approaching, Ben and I each get to go up there to talk about our processes.  And I am really looking forward to it!  Hope to see my fellow Spirited Gardeners there on June 2nd, 2009 at 8:00pm at Martyrs’, 3855 N Lincoln Avenue, Chicago.  Yee ha!

Our ship has landed...on December 28, 2008 at 12:30 PM, Chicago’s premiere PBS station, WTTW Channel 11, aired The Spirited Gardener’s first episode Labyrinths & Mazes.  Comcast on Demand had the show available for seven days after the initial airing.  We regret this information was not made available to share with our interested viewership but for the next round we will be more savvy.  A new era in gardening shows has begun.  Labyrinths and mazes have provided the subject matter of this first episode. The main thrust of the show: to catch the viewer’s imagination and invite them into the garden.

The Spirited Gardener looked at a very condensed history of labyrinths and mazes and visited three locations in the Chicagoland area to delve into the human experience with these unique forms of landscape.  Humorous animation was used to enhance the telling of historical tales, and little snippets of how to engage with these ideas.

In the first half of the show, Julia visited the labyrinth at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Elgin to get some first hand experience and meet the people that care for it.  Neal Harris, of Relax4life in Barrington, IL, shared stories about the labyrinth he created with the church and demonstrates some of the many ways to walk a labyrinth. 

In the second half of the show The Spirited Gardener visited the Morton Arboretum’s Maze Garden and interviewed maze designer Landscape Architect, Peggy Pelkanon.  As a close to the show, Donna Smith of the Morton Arboretum, offered her expertise on hedges and looked at some basic horticultural practices to aid shrub owners in the pruning and alignment of their hedges. 

One of the fun twists of this unique show is that the maze garden visit takes place in the winter…because every season is part of the garden!

On Sept. 18, 2008 at Unity Church in Chicago we had a grace filled launch event of the program and walked a labyrinth together.  See the Gallery for details.

One of Julia’s favorite pasttimes when not working in gardens is to play, meditate and meander through the gardens of others.  She is interested in investigating the connection between the ways in which humans have given significance and meaning to Life throughout their relationship to gardens and plants. 

Interviewing people in their gardens reveals the many ways that the human Spirit can grow alongside our plant companions.