“I learned about the forests and wildflowers along the side of the road, I observed the beehive hidden among the old spruce trees and studied the river that, as the seasons progressed, released a little more of its bed each time. I wandered through the vineyards and gathered work materials in the vegetable gardens and orchards, and I look forward to the mushroom season ahead. Nature continues to reveal itself through constant microactivity where bacteria, insects, lichens and other organisms communicate with each other through mutual exchanges and symbiotic relationships. I meticulously scanned the various environments, studying the interrelationships and complex layering. In the baroque gardens with their vast rose beds and hidden boxwood corridors, I felt like Alice in Wonderland. The time I spent in this residency made me look at things again and again and discover new particularities. The details in a leaf, the smell of sheep’s wool, the touch of a tree’s bark, the exact moment of the day when a flower opens its nectar glands, the specific flight path of a honey bee, the growth of a pear through the seasons, the wealth of color pigments that can be extracted from all of this. A million colors, a million forms a neverending activity and even so much more than what is visible to the human eye…”
Anne Marie Maes
