Speaker 1 (00:00): Coming up on Art Palace, Speaker 2 (00:02): So I grew up with grapes everywhere. I mean miles, square, miles of grapes. In the fall, the air literally smells like grapes. It's a magical Speaker 1 (00:10): Time. Welcome to Art Palace, produced by Cincinnati Art Museum. This is your host, Russell iig. Here at the Art Palace, we meet cool people and then talk to them about art. Today's cool person is Greg Torres Horticulturist from the Civic Garden Center of Greater Cincinnati. Right at the top of the show, I want to mention that the museum is currently closed in order to help prevent the spread of the novel Coronavirus. Please check our website or social media sites for up-to-date information about when we will reopen. Speaker 2 (01:02): My name is Greg Torres. I am the horticulturist at the Civic Garden Center. Speaker 1 (01:06): Okay, and what does that mean? What Speaker 2 (01:09): Does that mean? Here we are. What do you do? What do you do? So what I do, so I fancy myself more as a naturalist. I worked for about 10 years in the Parks Department in South Florida as a naturalist and interpretive guide in the swamps and the wildlands down there. Once I came here, I kind of got more focused on plants. I worked at a number of pretty big plant institutions in the city, and then I got this position here where I'm charged with the botanic garden that we have on site, and that's everything from I, everything that goes into managing a botanic garden. I work with a lot of volunteers. I do a lot of the education at the Civic Garden Center as far as around plant topics or even ecological topics. Outside of that, well, still within my job we have a big project called Tree Forestation, and that is fantastic. It's a great program where we teach kids how to grow trees from seeds. Speaker 2 (02:06): Oftentimes there's a site nearby that we're removing the invasives species while the trees are growing, and by the fall we plant in those trees. So it's restoring the habitat, it's getting volunteer engagement from the community. It's teaching kids about wildlands and trees and I mean, it runs a whole gamut of programming. It's a great program. Currently we have a 10 acre site. We're working at Walnut Hills High School right next to it. We also are working with Sandy Xavier High School, and I got my eye on Parkers Woods Montessori. I want to work with some of those kids over there. Speaker 1 (02:38): Hear that? Parker Woods? Speaker 2 (02:39): Yeah. Yeah, it's out there. So outside of the Garden Center though, also president of Northside Green Space. So the forest in Northside, whether it's Buttercup Valley or Parkers Woods or Badley Run, that organization is dedicated to upkeeping, maintaining and educating the neighborhood about the forest that they have right there in their backyards. Speaker 1 (03:00): How long has the Civic Garden Center been around? Speaker 2 (03:02): Oh my gosh. So our inception was as a institution that taught community members, citizens how to garden victory gardens. So back to World War II times. So I think we're in our 77th year in the city, and so our mission statement is building community through gardening education and environmental stewardship. And so those three components really feed off of one another when you really get down to it, and it's vitally important for the city to have an institution like this. Speaker 2 (03:32): There's several components to our organization, one of which is very strong. They're all very strong, but we have a community gardens program, and that's kind of where again, our inception took hold teaching people how to grow things in their own communities or their own backyards. We support over 60 community gardens in this city. So if you live in the city and one of these neighborhoods, chances are there's a community garden around you that you could probably walk to and get involved with. We act as a resource for those gardens as far as tools, education, seeds, but once you get in that network, there's a lot of benefits that come out of that. We have a youth educator who goes out to some of the schools and teaches kids how to grow plants as well. We've got a platinum lead certified building on site. It used to be an old gas station, but it's called the Green Learning Station. Speaker 2 (04:18): Cool. Kylie Johnson is our coordinator for that, and she has some great programming around sustainability, green infrastructure. She's got a real great program around green girls in stem, and they just do some fantastic work out of that building. We've got a volunteer coordinator who's essential to our running because there's only seven of us that work from this organization, but we have a volunteer corps of over 300 people. Wow. We rack up thousands of hours of volunteer service. That's very impressive. It's constantly growing, so it's a great program. And then me, I teach about the plants and I teach about how to grow. I usually field questions from the community anytime they have questions about plants, and again, I've got this botanic garden, which is just a pleasure to be in every day. Speaker 1 (05:06): Yeah. I think I first heard about the Civic Garden Center when I was in college because I don't know if they still do this, but when I was at the Art academy, they would have this annual garden art show. Speaker 2 (05:20): Do they still do Speaker 1 (05:20): It? Speaker 2 (05:21): I think it's become biannual, Speaker 1 (05:24): But something Speaker 2 (05:24): Like that. So I've been working Speaker 1 (05:26): There. It might've been then too. I could be remembering this wrong as well, Speaker 2 (05:29): And I think it was a little more robust than it has been recently. Last year they did it, and it was interesting to have some of these art displays in the garden. The first year I was there. It didn't happen, and I don't know if it's going to happen this year or not, but it is something that occurs and it's Speaker 1 (05:47): Periodic Speaker 2 (05:47): In Speaker 1 (05:47): Nature. Yeah, I mean, it was definitely, there were some super weird things that would come out of it, which was always funny to see because I mean, if the sort of nature of Art Academy students, it makes a lot of sense, but you're going to make work for the garden. I mean, I know what I made was absolutely insane. I made a series of flying. I don't even know why I did this. So they were like mustaches Speaker 2 (06:14): That Speaker 1 (06:14): Were made out of ceramic. So they were ceramic mustaches on metal rods that were free floating mustaches that were actualized, and then they were arranged in a V formation in the ground flying. Speaker 2 (06:32): Oh, weird geese or something. Speaker 1 (06:35): Geese. I remember actually probably my favorite piece I remember from that year was another student named Annette. If you're listening, there was a big pile of mulch on the grounds, and she just made these cutout eyeballs that they just stuck into the mulch. It's Speaker 2 (06:53): Actually brilliant. It was so good. It's brilliant. Some people overthink things and that's easy. So you just saw this big Speaker 1 (06:59): Pile and then it had eyes, and I was like, I love it. It was like how in a Mario game, everything has eyes, big eyes, everything is personified, the clouds, the bushes, everything has little eyeballs. And so they were very cartoony eyes and I was like, this is so good. It was delightful this Speaker 2 (07:18): Last year. Somebody had made a bunch of ceramic or I don't know, plaster or Paris Speaker 1 (07:23): Ears, Speaker 2 (07:25): Just like individual ears and then scattered them throughout the gardens and I mean, there was tons of 'em everywhere. A pile of them over here, one over there, I mean everywhere. And they kind of blend in with the leaf litter and stuff because they're cream colored or whatever colors they may be. And so they came and removed all the art. But in the fall, I'm raking up leaves and this heavy ear was just exposed. I'm like, what? They left all these ears in the gardens. It's like Speaker 1 (07:55): Blue velvet, Speaker 2 (07:55): Weird. Speaker 1 (07:57): Have you ever seen blue velvet? Speaker 2 (07:58): No, I have no idea. Okay. Speaker 1 (07:59): It's a David Lynch movie, and it begins with somebody finding an ear Speaker 2 (08:03): In Speaker 1 (08:04): A field, I think, or in somebody's yard or something, and then it's like this whole mystery about why is there an ear here? So anyway, that all tracks though for the typical work of an art student. I feel like when given this sort of prompt, Speaker 2 (08:20): But it's interesting you say that that was your first experience. A lot of people call the Civic Garden Center a hidden gem Speaker 1 (08:26): Because Speaker 2 (08:26): It's right there on Redding Road near all the hospitals and the university and that, and it is, it's like a block of big trees. I mean, that were planted decades ago. So we've got a canopy of trees. We've got bulbs galore. I mean, right now we've got probably 20 different plants in bloom on the grounds this time of year right now. So it's an incredible location visiting it every couple weeks really. You see new things coming up, the whole dynamic changes with the seasonal change or just the flowering, the bloom time, the insects that are there, the butterflies. We've got a pair of Cooper's Hawks right now just terrorizing all the squirrels and rabbits on the grounds. Speaker 1 (09:06): Come watch the show. It Speaker 2 (09:07): Is incredible. It's incredible. And so it's really, it's kind of a nice respite again for the hospital Speaker 1 (09:16): Workers Speaker 2 (09:16): There. They regularly come in to walk the grounds and just get a break. It's all green and flowers. So it's unique, I think, in this city to have a whole block in an urban core that's quite refreshing and green. Speaker 1 (09:29): And if people do want to just walk around, how do they do that? Speaker 2 (09:32): So the HOK Botanic Garden is the whole block there, and we actually split the property between the Civic Garden Center and the parks department Speaker 1 (09:41): And Speaker 2 (09:41): The gardens themselves are open, the gates are open and you can walk in anytime of the day, really, and it's free, so if you want to just come look at the plants, it's there. Our facility though, has got regular work hours and you can do some rentals out of it. We've got a big auditorium. We have a lot of presentations and classes, clubs, garden groups. We've got the Bonsai Society that meets there, the Orchid Society that meets there. It's a great place for weddings and receptions, birthday parties, all that kind of stuff too. But the gardens themselves are open anytime. Definitely want to tell people, go on the roof of G l s. We've got a green roof up there. We'll be growing vegetables later in the year on that roof, which is again, modeling what you could do in a city with plants. Speaker 1 (10:24): Is there anything else we should know about the Civic Garden Center? Anything else I haven't asked you about? Speaker 2 (10:29): I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to boast. This is my chance. Yeah, Speaker 1 (10:33): Do it. Speaker 2 (10:33): Yeah. We've got a fantastic staff. There's only seven of us, but we all work really hard in our own little areas to really improve the city and bring people closer to a connection with the earth. And I mean that big picture, but literally, you come away sometimes with dirt on your hands and you're growing plants, you're building community with your neighbors. For example, if there's a community garden, it's not just one plot and just you in it. You have neighbors that you don't even know that might also be gardening in that same space. And so it's a great way to meet people. It's a great way to bring people together. Again, with the habitat restoration, for example, we had the last two outings, volunteer outings. We had over 60 people at each one, and they're coming from high schools. Some of these are elementary kids, some of 'em are older folks just wanting to see what we're doing, even though they just can get in the trail a little ways, but it really does. We build community through those components. The education, gardening and environmental stewardship. It's really something strong and something I'm quite proud of, honestly, with that organization. As you mentioned earlier, you couldn't imagine working anywhere else. Speaker 2 (11:39): I feel the same way. I can't really imagine bringing the full bear of my talents onto and knowledge to an organization and really having the great impact that we have in this community. So Speaker 1 (11:50): It's Speaker 2 (11:51): A great place. Yeah. Speaker 1 (11:52): You said earlier we were walking around the galleries that you like to make art yourself. What kind of work do you make? Speaker 2 (11:58): Oh my gosh, Speaker 1 (12:01): Sorry. I've got two different spot Speaker 2 (12:02): Styles. I guess I've got a really abstract style, which I don't share that often. I'm a little bashful of it though. The people who have seen it really enjoy it. The other aspect which I do share is I draw pictures of plants, of landscapes and places that kind of strike me as beautiful. I've especially focused the last couple of years on the grounds, the Civic Garden Center grounds. We have stunning plants, and I am real particular to showing off our native plants oftentimes. Well, it's really the history of America. We took European culture and brought it to America and discounted most of the things that were natural and native here and supplanted it with a European or even Asian in some cases, style of gardening. And so we've really not cultivated our native plants. A lot of people aren't even aware of some of our native wildflowers that occur just in the woods around here, but they're stunning. I mean, absolutely beautiful specimens that need to be shown off. And if the other thing about America is that every person, generally speaking, has come from some other part of the world. And so there is no cultural connection to the earth here. Speaker 2 (13:14): You know what I mean? People came here and brought their own ideas, and it is a great thing about America, but the detriment is that you don't have those cultural ties to the earth itself here to the plants in the animal community that occur here. So again, we plant up our yards with a lot of Asian or European species of plants and discount the native things that are growing there. Maybe even call 'em weeds, but those plants that are native here feed our native creatures. They're designed to be the food sources for our native insects, for our native birds. So we're discounting the entire ecosystem. As long as we keep planting these non-native plants, we really need to look at what we have, find value in it, and then appreciate it by making our yards full of these plants really rebuilding the habitat that we've taken. And so I really push native plants and the whole ecological perspective of horticulture. Speaker 1 (14:09): Yeah. Well, when you were talking about just, that's sort the source of your drawings too. It was just making me think about how I love seeing sort of old illustrations, old botany. It's just those things where sort of drawing and science were sort of much more linked in the past in a sort of photography era. So I love seeing those kind of nature illustrations and I don't know the Speaker 2 (14:36): Botanical sketches, Speaker 1 (14:39): They're so wonderful. I don't know. There's something about the fact that they were maybe not designed to be seen maybe as art Speaker 2 (14:47): Is Speaker 1 (14:47): Sort of what actually makes them sort of fun to look at. For me, almost Speaker 2 (14:50): More genuine in a sense. Speaker 1 (14:52): Yeah, Speaker 2 (14:52): They're Speaker 1 (14:53): Pure. It just has this sort of other function, but then the sort of beauty of them comes out and just sort of like, you can't help it. It's like, well, there it is. So yeah, there's something nice about that too. Same with Audubon and Speaker 2 (15:08): Exactly, all those Speaker 1 (15:09): Sort of illustrations as well. Speaker 2 (15:11): Great naturalists. I mean, he worked here for a while in Cincinnati as well. Yeah. Speaker 1 (15:15): Well, I thought we could go out into the galleries. I have a few things I'd like to look at with you. If you don't have anything else to add, we can head on out. Speaker 2 (15:23): Let's go check out what you're going to surprise me. I know I haven't Speaker 1 (15:26): Told you yet. It'll be a surprise. So we're in Gallery 1 26, pretty sure. And so it's the space we call the fountain room. And I wanted to mention that we are recording while the museum is open, so you'll probably hear some chatter from other museum visitors while we're talking. We're looking at these four, I guess, murals I would call them. And hey, the label does too, so I'm not off on calling them murals. I just feel like sometimes I think of mural as being painted. I don't know. Speaker 2 (16:06): Yeah, I But they're murals. Speaker 1 (16:08): Yeah, they're murals. They're on the wall. They were meant to be installed in a wall. So they're from the Rookwood Pottery company, and they are the four Seasons. And I thought this would be appropriate to choose because this would be coming out around the beginning of spring and with flowers and the garden. I thought this was an appropriate piece. So when you looked at it right away, did you kind of interpret which panel equaled which season? Speaker 2 (16:38): Yeah, it's kind of intuitive to me. Daffodils, for example, in this one, or clearly a spring, they're blooming right now. Even there's a pinkish hue to the tree in the back. I'm assuming that's probably going to be some kind of cherry, Speaker 1 (16:52): Which would also be blooming Speaker 2 (16:53): Concurrently with the daffodils. And not to mention the zodiac symbols here too kind of indicate the season. Speaker 1 (17:00): That's like the fail safe, if you don't. Of course, that also presumes much about the Zodiac Speaker 2 (17:04): Zodiac Speaker 1 (17:05): Signs. Honestly, I look at 'em and I go, if it's not my own symbol, I was be like, Capricorn is when I don't know Leo. I think it's a, I don't know. But Speaker 2 (17:14): Yeah, this is clearly spring. The daffodils, as I said, they're blooming right now at our garden center at the gardens that I care for. One of our founding directors was named Peggy e McNeil, and she was also the founder of one of the founders of the Cincinnati Daffodil Society. Speaker 1 (17:33): So Speaker 2 (17:33): As a result, we have a lot of different daffodils blooming mostly through the spring, and the earliest of 'em have been coming up in the last week. Speaker 1 (17:41): Oh, nice. Speaker 2 (17:42): Yeah. Speaker 1 (17:42): Nice. Well, it's funny that you thought it was really obvious. I actually always have to stop and think about it, but I think that shows our areas of expertise, of expertise. I don't know anything about flowers, so I'm, in fact, I think sometimes in my mind, the colors of this one feel so warm with the yellow of the daffodil, and it's just a little more yellowy. And I associate that with heat. And so to me, I always think, is this the summer one? Because I'm not thinking about the specifics of the flowers. But I think the cherry blossoms make a lot of sense too, because now that you say that, I'm like, I kind of, at least I know that much cherry blossoms bloom in the spring. I know, Speaker 2 (18:21): I know Speaker 1 (18:22): That. So that actually is a good way for me to probably remember this a little bit better. It's Speaker 2 (18:27): Also interesting in the back round they have, in each one of the panels, it seems to be some kind of evergreen and I don't know what kind, maybe a juniper or something like that, or arbor variety. But those don't change throughout the panels. They're green throughout the all four seasons, which Speaker 1 (18:43): Is Speaker 2 (18:43): How they are in nature Speaker 1 (18:45): As well. So let's go to the next one here. So what about this one screams summer to you? Speaker 2 (18:51): Poppies? Those are poppies, Speaker 1 (18:54): Clearly, Speaker 2 (18:55): And they're a summertime bloomer. Again, the zodiac with Leo there is summertime zodiac symbol, but mostly the poppies. I mean, everybody, especially, like I was saying earlier, Europeans cultivated a lot of poppies, and so this would've been very familiar to, I guess, elite Americans at that time that this was created. Speaker 1 (19:15): Yeah. Yeah. I wonder if I don't know enough about what's happening on some of these bases. Speaker 2 (19:20): Yeah, I Speaker 1 (19:20): Kind of wondered about that too. This one especially has a full sort of scene happening that it feels very classically inspired. Something like you would see on a Greek urn or something. Yeah. I wonder, are they Speaker 2 (19:30): Doing? Speaker 1 (19:31): Yeah, I don't know. It might just be sort of made up sort of fake Greek stuff. I'm not sure. I mean, this was made way later. So it's like Speaker 2 (19:42): Cincinnati Speaker 1 (19:43): Potter, just trying to show something that feels very classical. And did I say what year this was from? It's 1907. It's a little earlier than I was imagining actually. I don't know what that really necessarily means though, but as far as what this is, but it Speaker 2 (19:58): Puts it in a context to some degree. Speaker 1 (20:01): So then the next one, Speaker 2 (20:04): This one to me stuck out immediately as fall, the grapes being there like that. So I'm from western New York, and actually Welch's, the Speaker 1 (20:13): Company Speaker 2 (20:14): Originated in my hometown called Westfield, and so I grew up with grapes Speaker 1 (20:18): Everywhere. Speaker 2 (20:19): I mean square miles of grapes Speaker 1 (20:21): In Speaker 2 (20:21): The fall. The air literally smells like grapes. Speaker 1 (20:24): Really? Speaker 2 (20:25): It's a magical Speaker 1 (20:26): Time. It's beautiful. Speaker 2 (20:27): So I grew up with grapes, and this always is a fall, at least the harvest season, the idea of harvesting in the fall. So grapes are indicative of that. And clearly this is also, again, the Zodiac Libra falls into that same autumn time period. I'm curious though, with the goats on this one, which kind of throw off the zodiac on that. Speaker 1 (20:47): Yeah. You would think it feels like it's more linked to Capricorn or something. Yeah, I thought about that too. I wonder if there's another sort of significance to that that I'm not kind of thinking of. Speaker 2 (20:56): I think there must be some significance to these vs. And yeah, Speaker 1 (20:59): I'm sure there is. I'm sure. I mean, they did take care to give them, each one is very unique. They're not just the same vase. You don't see it in the same way. I like how this one is shaped quite differently. It's almost like a basin which kind of works for the grapes. They're kind of filling it. It would be weird to fill a vase with grapes. Right. Speaker 2 (21:20): Well, it reminds me almost of the cornucopia idea of being able to harvest things and put it in there is a bowl or some kind of vessel to display your produce. Yeah. Speaker 1 (21:30): One of my other things I like about this one, and I guess it's happening to a certain degree with all of them, because the plants are kind of blooming up around the vases and the other ones. But the way this vine kind of creeps up and it wraps around this basin and before it sort of rests in there. Speaker 2 (21:47): Yeah, it definitely is twined around it. That's what grapes do. Speaker 1 (21:51): Yeah. Speaker 2 (21:53): If you notice too, the trees in this one have already lost their leaves, at least for the most part. It might be a little spot of leaves still up there, but I would think for this one, you would expect to see more of the ottum colors, yellow, orange, Speaker 1 (22:06): Red. That's true. I think that's another thing that sometimes throws me about these is because I think when we do think about seasons, we have pretty literal ideas of it, and there's some of the things that are removed. There's not really a lot of changing leaves. I've heard. Well, I'm jumping ahead, but there isn't a ton of snow or anything in this next one. So Speaker 2 (22:26): A couple of things I might be able to add to that is that early American artists, especially, like I was saying earlier, the Hudson River School, they tried to show off America's autumn forest, the colors that we have of the maples and the oaks and that. Then they would paint those paintings and bring 'em back to Europe. Europe, while they have some color change. It's not nearly as spectacular as Speaker 1 (22:49): The American. Yeah, it's dramatic. Speaker 2 (22:51): So again, if you're looking at this from a European perspective, you wouldn't really expect to see yellow reds jumping out at you. Speaker 1 (22:59): Yeah. Speaker 2 (22:59): Maybe the harvest would make sense, but as far as the bang of colors from a North American forest wouldn't be apparent to a European observing this. Speaker 1 (23:08): Yeah. Though you would kind of expect by 1907 people, you Speaker 2 (23:11): Would, but again, like I was saying Speaker 1 (23:14): Earlier, trying to reference something older or that's Speaker 2 (23:18): What I'm thinking. I mean, a lot of this is classical Speaker 1 (23:20): Exactly the same way. We're kind of talking about these urns and things as being inspired by Greece and stuff. So that makes a lot of sense. Speaker 2 (23:28): And even I was saying about how mostly Europeans colonize this place or North America that is, and brought with them their culture and didn't really pay attention to the native things around here. Speaker 1 (23:41): So what about this last one? Here Speaker 2 (23:42): We have winter. There's not much to look at. It's wintery ish. Yeah, you've got some kind of, it looks like a bonsai, Speaker 1 (23:50): Honestly. Yeah, that's kind of what I've always assumed it is, which I never necessarily understood the connection to winter. There Speaker 2 (23:57): I am having trouble seeing the connection with this one. You have the pines in the back, which makes sense. But that's in all of them. Speaker 1 (24:04): And it looks like there's a little bit of somebody sort of like, oh, here's some snow on top. Speaker 2 (24:09): Oh, I guess so. Yeah, Speaker 1 (24:10): It Speaker 2 (24:10): Does. Yeah, there's a little bit of snow. It Speaker 1 (24:12): Feels kind of like an afterthought to me. That's always been my thought about that snow. You don't even notice it at first, and you kind of even wonder, is it snow? I'm not sure. I mean, Speaker 2 (24:23): Well, it also goes with, I mean, it's much simpler than the others, in my opinion. Less colorful Speaker 1 (24:29): In Speaker 2 (24:29): My opinion. But it's also that's how winter is. Speaker 1 (24:32): It's Speaker 2 (24:32): Simpler and quieter and Speaker 1 (24:35): Not Speaker 2 (24:35): As colorful Speaker 1 (24:36): Now that I'm noticing, and this is me doing some detective work that I am not really qualified to do here. So take this with a big old grain of salt, but I'm noticing see the sort of white that's on top of those pines in the background and see how it's, it almost looks like it's puddling around. It doesn't necessarily look like how snow would gather on a tree top. I'm going to guess, and again, I could be wrong, but that there was maybe this glaze did not react the way they expected it Speaker 2 (25:08): To. That's an interesting artistic perspective that I would not have paid attention to Speaker 1 (25:13): Because it looks to me like that glaze sort of is melting away from the areas it was painted and is pulling in sort of strange places. That was not the intention. It's like a Speaker 2 (25:23): Light blue. It's almost mixed with the other grays in a sense. Speaker 1 (25:26): I just get the impression that it was supposed to be more on those raised tree tops and it fell off. Speaker 2 (25:33): Oh, I see what you mean. And Speaker 1 (25:34): Fell off into the surrounding blue instead of sitting on top. Maybe it was supposed to be a light dusting or something, and it maybe looks like that worked out better on this sort of bonsai here, where maybe the shape of it sort of caught the glaze more. Yeah, Speaker 2 (25:51): I can see what you Speaker 1 (25:52): Mean. But I am not a ceramicist or a glaze expert, so I do not know. But I do know when you heat things to 2000 degrees, sometimes they behave not how you want them to. Exactly. And sometimes that's what a lot of people who work with ceramics enjoy that sort of surprise because it's never exactly what you plan. There's always sort of an unknown factor when you pull something out of a kiln, then you're like, well, is this going to look like what I thought it would? Sometimes it looks better, sometimes it looks worse. And it's kind of up to you to decide. So I have another gallery I thought we could stop in real quick, but continuing on our Rookwood theme. So if you've got the time, we can walk Speaker 2 (26:31): Over there. Yeah, game. Let's do it. Okay, cool. Speaker 1 (26:43): So we are kind of in our main Rookwood pottery gallery now, which is one 14. And what I thought we could do is just sort of almost like as if we were in a garden, just kind of walk around and if you see something that sticks out to you that you sort of go, oh, that's this, that's that. We were walking through the galleries earlier, and it was kind of fun. You were pointing out things where artists were making stuff up, which I thought was really fun to find out. I don't see it. So if you see something that is either both incredibly accurate or incredibly fake, I would love to hear it and learn more, because I don't really, it's just one of those things I don't have an eye for Speaker 2 (27:22): Sure. So some of these are definitely stylized, some of them are more Asian themed, and I can see that. Speaker 1 (27:30): Yeah. Well, that's a good thing to note. So Mariah Longworth Nichols store, who has a real mouthful of a name. She is the founder of Rookwood Pottery, and she was very deeply, deeply inspired by Japanese pottery to the point where she hired Japanese potters. Speaker 2 (27:48): I've read that, Speaker 1 (27:49): And paid for them to come here to Cincinnati to work in her studio and to help decorate. So if you notice, actually here the name, the decorator is Kitani. So you can see that we have Japanese decorators, and sometimes it's her sort of playing up that style. And then sometimes it's an authentically Japanese perspective. Japanese. Speaker 2 (28:16): So I like this vase in particular. Speaker 1 (28:20): So we're looking at one. We're probably going to not keep track of these. There's so many that we're probably not going to be able to set all of them. So I apologize if we just kind of hop around. But this one has, its pretty large vase, so that has these moths on it. Speaker 2 (28:32): Yeah, and what's interesting about it is you have the Japanese theme with the bamboo leaves in the background. Those are definitely bamboo leaves, but the insects are native to North America. Speaker 1 (28:44): So Speaker 2 (28:44): This is like a Luna Moth here, which is a stunning insect. They have a type of Luna moth in Asia as well, but this other one is painted wings. I'm pretty sure that's the name of it, the underwings there. It might even be called underwings. But these are both native insects that you can find here in Ohio, which is fascinating because again, to link it back to plants, these insects being lepidoptera butterflies or moths, they require very specific plants to eat. Everybody knows about the monarch caterpillar needs milkweed. Well, it's the same with a lot of our butterfly and moth species. These two moths would not be eating bamboo to see them on the vase here with bamboo kind of puts together, it's smashing together two different ecological systems on one vase. But it is neat that they're pretty well represented as far as being put on a vase. It's incredible. Speaker 1 (29:36): Yeah. I love when moths get to shine. I don't do butterflies get all the attention now? They do. I feel like it's sort of nice when moths are so cool, and I feel bad for them. They're sort of treated like the ugly stepsisters sometimes. Speaker 2 (29:54): If you go down a little ways, we've got this beautiful one with the maple leaves painted on it, and these are, Speaker 1 (30:00): I wouldn't see that. I mean, now that you say it, I'm like, oh, duh. Of course those are maple leaves, but I would never have thought about it. Speaker 2 (30:06): What's interesting is in our yards even, we have a lot of Japanese maple trees, but we have native maple trees as well, a number of species. But these leaves that are painted, they're from our North American tree species. Yeah, we go down, this looks like tulips, Speaker 1 (30:21): Which would be Speaker 2 (30:22): Blooming in a couple of weeks here. Very beautiful. Speaker 1 (30:25): Yeah. Maybe another tulip up there is that Speaker 2 (30:28): It looks kind of like a magnolia, honestly. Speaker 1 (30:31): Oh, interesting. It's kind of hard to tell. Yeah, that's true. It is a little hard to see from just the way it's positioned. I mean, that's the thing about VAEs as being three dimensional. We can only get to see them from limited angles when you would like to get in there, and Speaker 2 (30:46): Some are more stylized than others, so that Speaker 1 (30:49): Makes a Speaker 2 (30:49): Difference. Corn, I see this beautiful corn Speaker 1 (30:51): Tile. Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 2 (30:53): Corn is from north and Central America as well, which is kind of neat. It has become very important throughout the world as far as agriculture, this looks like a great blue heron, which we have locally. I mean, the beautiful birds coming from south Florida, they were in every ditch, but here, it's kind of a special thing to see them. Speaker 1 (31:11): What does this blue one with the flowers that kind of hang down? Speaker 2 (31:14): Yeah, so this is a wisteria. Speaker 1 (31:16): So Speaker 2 (31:17): What's interesting about it is there's a Chinese wisteria that a lot of people cultivate in their yards. Speaker 1 (31:23): If you Speaker 2 (31:23): Go downtown, that p and g, big plaza that they have with the wisteria wrapping around it, those are all Asian wisteria. But we have a native wisteria to North America. It's called actually Kentucky Wisteria. Speaker 1 (31:34): Oh, okay. Speaker 2 (31:35): So if you're from Kentucky, get rid of your Asian one and try to plant the native one because it's just as beautiful, and it's in the pea family. It's got that typical keeled petals there. So you can tell it's in the pea family. I can tell it's Speaker 1 (31:49): In the pea family. Oh, yeah. No, I can't tell. I'll nod when you say that and go, yes, of Speaker 2 (31:54): Course. We have poppies here again. We saw on the other panel with the open flowers like that, it's quite nice. So summertime flower there. I Speaker 1 (32:03): Can't wait to say this back to an audience of people and make them think I'm really smart. Speaker 2 (32:11): This is morning glory. Speaker 1 (32:12): Oh, okay. Speaker 2 (32:13): Species of morning glory. There's a number of them. Iia is the genus of it, but this occurs in North America, and it's commonly a weed because it seeds out a lot. Speaker 1 (32:24): But Speaker 2 (32:24): I love the plant, and it's a great plant that just kind of twines up things and flowers beautifully. Speaker 1 (32:29): This is a gorgeous face. I've never, it's so funny because some of these, I don't even know. I'm like, did they put this out recently or has it been here forever? Because a lot of them I don't think changed that much. But in this case, I just probably have walked by it a lot and just not noticed it. But it's this really beautiful dusty rose color all over. And then the flowers are a similar color, but they're just a lot lighter, so they pop out. And then this green against that pink, it's just like, I don't know. It's some interesting color choices that surprise me. Speaker 2 (33:01): And they work. They look really well. Speaker 1 (33:02): Yeah, Speaker 2 (33:03): I'm going to ignore that one. It's pretty cool. But I don't know the flower in Speaker 1 (33:07): That. Interesting. Yeah, I wondered about that one actually. Now that you want to ignore it now, all I want to do is talk about it. It has a very sun flowery look about it, but then the way it's growing doesn't have anything to do with the sunflower. Speaker 2 (33:19): No, it kind of dangles down like that. I'm not familiar with that Speaker 1 (33:22): Mean. I'm not for sure. But I mean, that could be just a sort of made up thing. Speaker 2 (33:26): It could Speaker 1 (33:28): Just could be a little bit of artistic license. Speaker 2 (33:31): And this is an interesting one here too. This is Jack in the pulpit. AIA Phylum is the scientific name, but this you can find in the woods around here. It's an aero, which is a super bizarre plant to even grow the whole family is really interesting to grow. But yeah, this is a native plant you can find in the woods around here. Speaker 1 (33:49): Okay. Speaker 2 (33:49): I love this one. Just the color scheme on it is gorgeous. Speaker 1 (33:53): Yeah. There's several of these kind of next to each other, and there's one above it to a tile that has the same kind of glazing style. I think it's the vellum glaze line that it's just so soft looking. And yeah, it's very, very pretty. Speaker 2 (34:13): Yeah. And next we have the birch trees, and you can see they're kind of growing by water, which might be river birch if that were the case, which does grow around here. What's interesting about birch trees, and I've seen this used by other artists, especially in paintings because of the white bark like that, they will use it oftentimes in a dark forest to create a sense of light Speaker 1 (34:34): Or Speaker 2 (34:34): Something popping off Speaker 1 (34:35): In Speaker 2 (34:36): The forest. So in a lot of landscape paintings, you'll see birch use to add color or a lightness to a dark background like Speaker 1 (34:45): That. It's Speaker 2 (34:45): Really kind of neat. And then you have the same plant here, the wisteria, but it's again, more stylized than the one we saw over there. See the clusters of flowers that hang down Speaker 1 (34:54): And Speaker 2 (34:55): The Penn eight leaves like that. It's definitely wisteria. Speaker 1 (34:58): Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's pretty good. And that's actually, I think we've hit most of the, I mean, there's plenty more flowers in here, so we could stay here all day. The other side is more of sort of other Cincinnati art pottery. So this site is mostly all the rookwood, so we can just keep it contained to that. So I don't keep you here for hours and hours and hours. But yeah, you definitely saw way more than I would. Well, if we were walking through here, Speaker 2 (35:23): It's neat. Yeah, Speaker 1 (35:24): I'd be like flowers. Pretty well, thank you so much for being my guest today, Greg. Speaker 2 (35:31): This has been great, and I want to make one other point, I guess, if I could. Yeah, sure. Basically speaking, when we talk about art, a lot of it is a replication of nature. So it's derivative of what's already out in nature and beyond that even, it's not a five sense experience to observe art. I love the arts. I think it's, hopefully Speaker 1 (35:51): It's not, we don't want you licking every Right, taste Speaker 2 (35:54): This, right. Everybody's tasting it. Speaker 1 (35:57): We strongly discourage the touching and tasting especially, Speaker 2 (36:00): But the point I'm trying to make is that nature and being out in it is a five sense experience. You do smell, you do taste, you do see and hear the things. And most of our media does not do that. It only occupies a few senses, but nothing gives you a full five sense whole body experience other than just being out in nature in present form. And if anybody's interested in that, I give a lot of talks and walks in the woods and find me at the Civic Garden Center. Speaker 1 (36:27): Yeah. Thanks. Thanks again. Speaker 2 (36:28): Thank you for this opportunity. It's great. Sure. Speaker 1 (36:37): Thank you for listening to Art Palace. We hope you'll be inspired to come visit the Cincinnati Art Museum and have conversations about the art yourself. General admission to the museum is always free, and we also offer free parking. Like I mentioned earlier, the museum is currently closed. But we do want to invite you to join our new Facebook group, cam Connect, where we will be posting digital content and asking you to join in the conversation. For program reservations and more information, visit cincinnati art museum.org. You can follow the museum on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat. And we also have an Art Palace Facebook group. Our theme song is Efron Music by Balal. And as always, please rate and review us to help others find the show. I'm Russell, and this has been Art Palace, produced by the Cincinnati Art Museum.