I ordered an embarrassing amount of indie mags from Under the Cover in Lisbon a few weeks ago. I find so much inspiration from the people they profile and I love discovering artists, entrepreneurs, and creatives that I’ve never heard of. I especially appreciate how apartamento profiles artists of all ages—recently I’ve seen a handful of interviewees pushing 80 years in their pages and it’s a refreshing change from the typical 20-somethings who grace the glossy commercial magazines.
In the pile of magazines I ordered was one that was new to me, called nomad. They profile artists and creators from all disciplines who are working to design things in harmony with nature and to use design to push and evolve the way we view human-nature interaction. Every person featured in the magazine is a powerhouse in their own way, but I particularly loved reading about Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg. I’m excited to share more about her pollinator project below!
For some reason, literature about nature and gardening has been calling to me. My books from my previous move finally arrived at my new house and it’s been a joy rediscovering my favorites; last week, The Well-Gardened Mind: The Restorative Power of Nature by Sue Stuart-Smith basically fell off the shelf into my hands. The author is a psychotherapist and the book is about the impact that gardening can make on mental health. An excerpt:
Grief is isolating and is no less so when it is a shared experience. A loss that devastates a family generates a need to lean on one another, but at the same time everyone is bereft, everyone is in a state of collapse. There is an impulse to protect one another from too much raw emotion, and it can be easier to let feelings surface away from people. Trees, water, stones, and sky may be impervious to human emotion, but they don’t reject us either. Nature is unperturbed by our feelings, and because there is no contagion, we can experience a kind of consolation that helps assuage the loneliness of loss.
Onto the rest…
The Pollinator Pathmaker
As mentioned, nomad magazine helped me discover Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg’s work. In particular, the interview discussed her Pollinator Pathmaker project. In Ginsberg’s own words, “Pollinator Pathmaker is an artwork for pollinators, planted and cared for by humans. The aim is to transform how we see gardens and who we make them for.”
When you go to the site, you’ll be prompted to make your own garden. You can choose from a handful of locations, the sunlight and exposure, the type of soil, and a few other details. The site will then pull from Alexandra’s art to create a unique garden for you, where you can look at the garden from a 2D or 3D view and a human or pollinator view. You can see the types of plants that need to exist, you can look at the pollinator’s pathways and you can even download planting instructions in case you want to try it IRL.
I think this is brilliant and innovative for a lot of reasons, but in particular because it asks us to not intervene with nature. When we think of gardens, we think of plants we’d like to cherry pick and plant based on our own aesthetic preferences, but what about creating something that actually benefits the plants themselves? Nature is far smarter than we are, so how can we learn about its existing knowledge vs. trying to conquer it?
The Artist’s Way
If you’re reading this Substack you’ve probably read The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron at least once, but hey—this can be your reminder to revisit your morning pages. It was also in the stack of books that arrived from my previous home, and I quickly snapped it out of a box and got to work. I never doubt the power of morning pages, but I’m always amazed at the impact they have. If you’re a writer, the last thing you might want to do is write even more, especially if it’s meant to be non-sensical and private; however, I strongly urge you to give it a try. Being able to get that stream of consciousness out first thing in the morning really does unblock you for the rest of the day.
If this is your first time hearing of this book or you haven’t had the chance to do it yet…go!!
Gardening
I’m going to end with a question: do you garden? What’s your relationship to the land around your house? When you go for a walk later today, what plant or flower did you notice for the first time?