Lee Lee

Visual Arts Archive

A Year in Grandpa’s Garden

Taos, New Mexico

During my son’s 3rd and 4th years, we renovated the historic ‘Distillery’ in Taos, New Mexico. My father had constructed a little casita behind the main house and we worked together to establish a permaculture garden in between. The garden was terraced to utilize water flowing through the Los Lovatos Acequia, which was approaching its 300 year anniversary of spreading water across the valley below Taos. It was at this time that Thatcher Gray started learning how to work with water from his grandfather, who is a master irrigator. As a master gardener, Peter (Grandpa) also taught him how to tune into plants, tend them to thrive and eat from the garden. I followed the progress of the garden through an entire season, creating a series of watercolors painted atop beet, cabbage and tea stains that were created using garden plants. Grandpa wrote Haiku & we paired the work as a story that follows the seasons of growing food in the upper Rocky Mountain Steppe.

The project was included in the 2014 Terra Madre festival by Slow Food International, the ISEA2012: Machine Wilderness, ecosource and edible Santa Fe magazines

A selection of the works are included here:

Acequia: watercolor and poetry - a multi-generational collaboration that follows the story of a year in Grandpa's garden by Lee Lee, Thatcher Gray & Peter Thatcher Leonard
Acequia: watercolor and poetry - a multi-generational collaboration that follows the story of a year in Grandpa's garden by Lee Lee, Thatcher Gray & Peter Thatcher Leonard
Acequia: watercolor and poetry - a multi-generational collaboration that follows the story of a year in Grandpa's garden by Lee Lee, Thatcher Gray & Peter Thatcher Leonard
Acequia: watercolor and poetry - a multi-generational collaboration that follows the story of a year in Grandpa's garden by Lee Lee, Thatcher Gray & Peter Thatcher Leonard
Acequia: watercolor and poetry - a multi-generational collaboration that follows the story of a year in Grandpa's garden by Lee Lee, Thatcher Gray & Peter Thatcher Leonard
Acequia: watercolor and poetry - a multi-generational collaboration that follows the story of a year in Grandpa's garden by Lee Lee, Thatcher Gray & Peter Thatcher Leonard
Acequia: watercolor and poetry - a multi-generational collaboration that follows the story of a year in Grandpa's garden by Lee Lee, Thatcher Gray & Peter Thatcher Leonard
Acequia: watercolor and poetry - a multi-generational collaboration that follows the story of a year in Grandpa's garden by Lee Lee, Thatcher Gray & Peter Thatcher Leonard
Acequia: watercolor and poetry - a multi-generational collaboration that follows the story of a year in Grandpa's garden by Lee Lee, Thatcher Gray & Peter Thatcher Leonard

Lee Lee

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