Maud Guilfoyle
WESTWOOD, NJ
I paint in a greenhouse beside an 18th century family farmhouse, at Old Hook Farm. Works in progress may include art from my Flowers for the Bees series.
Message
The work of the Land Institute in Kansas inspired this series of paintings. The institute is creating a new agriculture informed by nature. This system produces food while preserving biodiversity by creating perennial, polyculture food crops with twenty foot deep roots instead of merely two foot deep roots. This builds precious topsoil.
Life continues underground through all seasons. There are blessings scribed in the roots and woven throughout the seasons. Spring, Summer and Autumn contain eighteen honeybees. The number 18 signifies blessings and good fortune in many cultures. Earth from Kansas is blended into the brown umber paint surrounding the roots in each panel. Plants included in the Roots paintings are apple trees, bee balm, bind weed, black-eyed susan, clover, crocus, daffodilis, daisy, Echinacea, forget-me-not, hawthorne tree, hyacinth, iris, Kernza Wheat, lupine, milk weed, nettle, perennial sorghum, plantain, thistle, tulips, salvia, spiderwort, snowdrops, sunflowers, and yarrow.
