On The Nature of Things: The Path to the Garden
One gardener/potter/art dealer’s attempt to put it all together – the sacred landscape of the Upper Mississippi, native plants, art and a life transformed by living in Japan.
“Having spent my adult professional life involved in the art world I have come to consider the garden as the ultimate art form as it integrates all those criteria by which art is judged. The creation of a garden is conceptual, intuitive, physical, philosophical, strategically considered, and ultimately the result of intent and the nature of things. The garden is also profoundly ephemeral in that its existence is subject to the vicissitudes of nature, man’s folly or favor, and a rapidly changing world.” – D. Dawson
Douglas Dawson was director of Douglas Dawson Gallery, an acclaimed ethnographic art gallery, located in the South Loop of Chicago. Douglas pursued his interest in the fine arts by earning his BFA in Ceramics from Antioch College and has extensively traveled the world studying Japanese language and fine art at Waseda University in Tokyo and pre-Columbian art and civilization at the University of San Carlos, Guatemala. His most influential life experience was a formal apprenticeship with Niwa, Ryochi, master potter in Yamagata, Japan. He was a production potter for a decade and in 1983 opened his gallery. His passions include his farm in NE Iowa, reading, natural history, archaeology, ceramics, art, progressive politics, gardening, and travel.