The Paper Garden: An Artist Begins Her Life's Work at 72

This was not a planned purchase. Came across by accident and the story and history sounded interesting, and happy to find on Amazon Historical floral artwork by a very talented woman way ahead of her time. Book in very good condition for a former library book, and was packaged well.

With this line Molly Peacock evokes the spirit, inspiration and breath of this beautiful book about the artist Mary Delany who created nine hundred eighty-five mosaics, the first completed in her seventy-third year. But to say that this is a book about the art of Mary Delany, her exquisite mosaics of flowers, which this book is, is to understate its power, its aim. The poet Molly Peacock has taken Mary Delany in her sights and locked onto her life to reveal not only Mary's story, but Molly's, and to reveal the breath of life that drives the creative impulse. Her words speak better than mine: "... [Y]ou must have technical skill to accomplish anything, but you also must have passion, which in an odd way is technique forgotten." "The state of not-knowing ... recaptures youth's novel excitements." "Mere self expression is not art. Nor is excellent technique on its own. ... Both passion and virtuosity are required for this leap." Peacock writes about the artist's solitude, the need to say "no," on "the incivility of the artist at work (what others call selfishness)," on the need for applause and how the encouragement of others increases the productivity of the artist and is not to be underestimated. She informs and inspires as she uncovers the life and work of Mary Delany. And perhaps more profoundly, she cuts to the bone of her own anxieties about life and death and love. Look at this book for its gorgeous reproductions of Mary Delany's work. Read this book for the intertwined history of Mary Delany's remarkable life and Molly Peacock's tender memoir. Keep this book, as I will, for its insight on art and life, on living well and on the gift of "direct observation that leads to indirect epiphany."

Molly Peacock, who is an extraordinary poet and memoirist, has written a visually, textually, and conceptually stunning and important book about women and creativity. Her reverential treatment of everything artistic her subject, Mary Granville Pendarves Delany, undertook, from her work with paper and shells to designing her own clothing, all the way to her creation of 985 meticulous, botanically accurate representations of flowers beginning at age 72, is an insistence upon Mrs. Delany's creativity as manifesting in her every endeavor. To make such an insistence is to validate a woman's artistic life.The Paper Garden is a book that defies categorization. We should resist the urge to describe this book as genre-busting because that's too limiting. The Paper Garden busts genre-busting. There is thoroughly well-researched history, botany, and biography, as well as Peacock's trademark provocative memoir, grand metaphor, and lush poetry, all woven together so deftly that to attempt anything on its scale will surely vex other prose writers for decades to come. What Peacock accomplishes is nothing short of a layering of so many women's experiences (how many women are mentioned!--Mary Delany, her sister, her aunt, her friends, the author, the author's mother and grandmother, female museum curators/art historians, and so on...) that a commentary on collective consciousness seems to emerge. We begin to realize how so many women's lives are connected through the practice of art, the making of a meal, the loss or fear of losing a partner, the designing of a gown or a garden, the complexities of adult sibling friendship, the smelling of a flower. I've never read a book like it.

I enjoyed the detail in color illustrations and the historical background and biography of the woman and her world

I loved this book, the language, the beautiful physical book, and the images. I knew about Mrs. Delaney, and I enjoyed learning more about her - and liked even more reading about Molly Peacock's imaginative journey. We visited the British Museum this spring and it was great fun to picture earlier visitors to the flower mosiacs. Peacock describes finding by chance Ruth Hayden's "Mrs Delany: Her Life and Her Flowers" in the Museum gift shop and reading it on the plane home. Peacock relates how Hayden came to write her book after countless visits to see the images. She mingles Hayden's story with that of Mrs. Delany's - and her own - to inspire us to creativity at any point in life.Look at the world! Peacock says, "Observation of one thing leads to unobserved revelation of another." And she says it again: "Direct examination leads to indirect epiphany." With the language and grace of the poet she is, Peacock articulates the importance of practicing an art to "process the material of a life" - and by that she means "love and death and every insect bite in between...". In the book, Molly Peacock invites us to sort through our creative impulses and find the center of such work for ourselves. A great invitation.

CANCEL THIS ORDER

was disappointed that it had so few illustrations in it, but loved the story of mrs delaneys life

Was unhappy with the way the author interjected her life story into this bio of Mrs. Delaney.It drastically spoilt the read for me. The parts on Mrs. Delaney were riveting. Also found the writer took too much poetic writers license. She should have just told the story in a straightforward way. Most disappointing.

This is a fascinating story of a woman who began her artistic career at 72. The illustrations and the quality of the paper mean that you will want to keep this book and revisit it often.

What a wonderful story! This biography, interwoven with its author's history, both inspires and causes one to reflect on life's vagaries. Mrs. Delaney was enormously talented, and was both crippled and enabled by her time. Her artwork was fabulous. What an incredible and wonderful tale! I am so glad that I was encouraged by friends to buy and read this book. It's a pleasure to own--I love leafing through its coloured prints.