Yard Art and Handmade Places : : Extraordinary Expressions of Home / / Jill Nokes, Pat Jasper.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Texas Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Nokes, Jill,; Jasper, Pat,
• MitwirkendeR: Flowers, Betty Sue,
• TeilnehmendeR: Flowers, Betty Sue.; Whitson, Krista.
• Place / Publishing House: Austin : : University of Texas Press, , [2021]; ©2007
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (188 p.)

Relatively few people in America build their own homes, but many yearn to make the places they live in more truly their own. Yard Art and Handmade Places profiles twenty homemakers who have used their yards and gardens to express their sense of individuality, to maintain connections to family and heritage, or even to create sacred spaces for personal and community refreshment and healing. Jill Nokes, an authority on native plants and ecological restoration, traveled across the state of Texas, seeking out residents who had transformed their yards and gardens into oases of art and exuberant personal expression. In this book, she presents their stories, told in their own words, about why they created these handmade places and what their yard art has come to mean to them and to their communities. Rather than viewing yard art as a curiosity or oddity, Nokes treats it as an integral part of home-making, revealing how these places become invested with deep personal or social meaning. Yard Art and Handmade Places celebrates the fact that, despite the proliferation of look-alike suburbs, places still exist where people with ordinary means and skills are shaping space with their own hands to create a personal expression that can be enjoyed by all.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Places Full of Memory and Meaning -- 2. The Repertoire of the Garden -- 3. Cascada de Piedra Pinta -- 4. A Natural and Peaceful Spirit -- 5. Little by Little, He's Been Blessing Us -- 6. Stories from the Valley -- 7. The Love You Have To Do It -- 8. Placenames and Family -- 9. Mango's Jungle -- 10. The Ardent Virtuosity of Collectors' Gardens -- 11. One Big Cactus and Succulent Dish Garden -- 12. A Surprise Comes Every Day -- 13. Sculpture You Can Live In -- 14. The Flower Man -- 15. The Cathedral of Junk -- 16. Casa de Azúcar -- 17. Stories from the Panhandle -- 18. A Great Peaceful Place -- 19. The Only Trees for Miles Around -- 20. A Windbreak for the Homeplace -- 21. God and the Birdhouses Brought Us Together -- 22. A Lesson in Landmarks -- 23. This Is How You Stay Alive -- 24. Desires of the Heart -- 25. More Than Four Seasons -- Notes -- Index