Description
Book Synopsis“Okun has extended her gaze to encompass horticulture and the drama of the natural world, while exploiting the potential of digital photography to create subtler impressions of mountains and ocean, clouds and gardens, foliage and cacti.” — Michael Webb
Layered Landscapes is a collection of essays and photographs of our beautiful world from just outside our homes all the way to the heavens. The book has introductions by Michael Webb (architecture writer) and Craig Krull (gallerist). Craig Krull aptly points out that Okun’s photographs are a “reconstructed harmony into what we believed to be a ‘real’ landscape.” He writes that “her work has always defined the point that landscapes do not exist in nature, but only in our minds.” Okun’s artwork is a mixture of multiple layers that present a memory of the places she has visited on her many travels. The photographs are as poetic as the essays. Griff Rhys Jones (writer, actor, presenter) explores the colour blue. Kathy Lette (author) becomes a cloud on an Australian beach. Thea Musgrave (composer) explains a tempest in musical notes. Tania Compton (garden designer) talks about meadows balancing wild and formal gardens. Caleb Leech (landscape Gardener) writes about medieval gardens. Annie Gatti (garden writer) and Steve Reich (writer and producer) both talk about happiness in gardening. James Forrest (writer) climbs mountains to become calmer. Richard Sparks (writer, director) and Lee Holdridge (Composer) discuss Okun’s projected design for opera. Layered Landscapes is a meditation on our earthly desires.
Table of ContentsIntroductions Michael Webb 6 Craig Krull 12 Jenny Okun 18 Essays Griff Rhys Jones 40 Thea Musgrave 45 Richard Sparks 49 Lee Holdridge 50 Kathy Lette 53 James Forrest 54 Annie Gatti 57 Steven Reich 62 Caleb Leech 65 Tania Compton 66 Gus Christie 70 Historical Quotes Georgia O’Keeffe 81 Maya Angelou 82 Eric Newby 85 Sara Donati 86 Chris Bonnington 89 Pablo Picasso 91 Jules Verne 93 Lord Byron 94 John Muir 98 Edgar Allen Poe 101 William Shakespeare 103 Alberto Giacometti 107 Vincent van Gogh 108 Thomas Jefferson 111 e. e. cummings 112 Lawren Harris 114 Alfred Wainwright 117 Sylvia Plath 118 Langston Hughes 121 Lucien Freud 122 Albert Einstein 125 Arthur C. Clarke 126 Carl Reiner 129 Vladimir Nabokov 131 Marina Warner 133 Charles Dickens 135 Emily Carr 137 Marc Chagall 139 Jenny Okun 140 John Denver 140 Tom Paxton 140 Art and Landscape by Jenny Okun 144 Contributors 154 Acknowledgments 158
