Saturday, October 11, 2014

52 Author Dates ~ Week 39


Visit An Art Gallery 
Heidi Museum Of Modern Art

This week’s author challenge was meant to have me consider the story behind the title of a piece of artwork, and beyond... to what we discover on a level deeper than words.

I chose to visit the Heidi Museum of Modern Art, only a few minutes drive from Crabapple House. Beginning its life in 1934 as the home of Melbourne couple John and Sunday Reed, the Heidi Museum of Modern Art 
has since evolved into one of Australia’s most important cultural institutions. 

My visit confirmed what I already suspected. I’m blind to the beauty of modern art. I want to say I was transfixed by the collections and wandered around in deep appreciation of the storytelling on the walls. And floors. 

But that didn’t happen... so much. 

I looked and pondered and wondered, but modern art has never gripped me the way the view outside could. And did. 

Back through the gallery front doors and into the acres of parkland, I followed the winding tracks to the original Heidi homestead and the real piece of art ~ the decades-old kitchen gardens filled with climbing roses, cottage perennials and the remains of winter’s vegetables. 

Kitchen Garden ~ Heidi Museum Of Modern Art
The last of the leeks farewelled the colder months, and all around them new herb growth pushed up through the well tended dirt. I imagine the gaps between the cottage favourites will soon close in the flush of spring and summer crops, right where the straw mulch now coddles earthy rows. 

See... I have words about the potager at the bottom of the garden. But not many about the art work on the walls. 

Why is that? I guess it’s my preference and delight in seeing a landscape change and come to life in a million ways. A picture of my most beloved plants, hemmed in by a simple olde worlde style fence, draped in rambling roses. More Ink Dots. More me.
Kitchen Garden ~ Heidi Museum Of Modern Art

But I’ll be back to Heidi. In another few weeks when the weather warms and the gardens tell summer’s story. I don’t need a title. The beds and orchard will speak for themselves. And I’ll pass through the archways and ‘round hidden bends with thankful heart for the seasonal songs of the humble kitchen garden plot. 

I'm glad for the artists who banded together to form their community of painters and sculptors. They mark significant achievements in Australia's history. But I’m grateful someone thought to preserve the old farm style plots, the almost hundred year old fruit trees and the rickety barn now called the Doll’s House, where cows were milked every day by paint-stained fingers, itching to return to their brushes and canvases. 

Kitchen Garden ~ Heidi Museum Of Modern Art

That’s the story I most care to look at. A glimpse of yesteryear, still thriving beneath heritage blooms and rare herbs. That’s my kind of picture. 

How about you? Are you a fan of modern art? More traditional? Or do you care for a blend of all kinds of artistic expression? 

Blessings for a wonderful weekend,