artist date

yesterday i took the advice of the julia cameron (the artist’s way) and went on an artist date with my friend liz. when i taught my STILL workshop a few weeks ago, one of the attendees told me about her parents gladiolus farm in elgin, minnesota. it sounded magical. so yesterday i drove an hours and half to southern minnesota, to visit the farm.  it was like field of dreams–remember that movie?  carved out of a working farm, 100s of acres of corn standing 9 feet tall,  was four acres of gladioli in every color imaginable–including dozens of hybrids created by the family. tens of thousands of gladioli in a neat little square cut right out of the corn fields. it was a sight to behold. but the best part of the visit, was learning that the family grows the glads, not for financial gains, but for the simple joy of sharing them. they donate all the flowers to locals hospital, nursing homes, and school fundraisers. on the day we visited three generations of the family were out cutting for the weeks deliveries. the grandkids were especially happy to show us their individual hybrids, each named after them, and that they had had a hand in creating. the warmth and generosity of the place was palpable. and the rainbow of  colors was in indeed magical.  i came home with a huge armful of “dead heads” that were being thinned and tossed into piles at the end of each row. so i warn you now, you will likely be seeing a lots of gladioli photos in the coming weeks.

interestingly, any flowers that did not grow perfectly straight got cut and added to the toss pile. ironically, the first flower i picked up to photograph was this bent stem that so beautifully highlights its zippered spine. where they saw only imperfection, i saw beauty. sometimes it helps to be uniformed.

gladiolus (Gladiolus)