Growing Hope: Filoli House & Garden

Growing Hope: A Collaboration for Our Times is a beautiful partnership formed with two incredible bay area textile artists: Susan Bianchi (middle) and Barbara Kibbe (right). Over the upcoming year, the three of us are creating a new body of art inspired by gardens and aimed at visualizing hope. We are especially excited about the opportunities for co-creating and cross-pollination through monthly meet ups for studio play, Zoom and email check-ins, and field trips to local gardens.

This past Monday, we met at Filoli Historic House and Garden located in Woodside, CA, south of San Francisco. Mr. Bourn was the original estate owner and named it "Filoli" by combining the first two letters from the key words of his personal credo:

• FIght for a just cause.
• LOve your fellow man.
• LIve a good Life

This mantra certainly resonated with the vision of our project as well as wisdom as we navigate the current and ever-changing political climate here in the United States.  

As soon as we entered the Filoli grounds, we each had our cameras out to capture design inspiration for our fiber art pieces. It was an overcast day with a few small patches of light rain, creating optimal lighting for photography. While we each had our own artistic eye as to what captured our imagination, there were certainly views that drew us all in for closer appreciation and contemplation.

Top left and bottom right photos taken by Barbara Kibbe

The Filoli estate and grounds are impeccably cared for by the team of staff and volunteers.

And while the architecture and gardens are beautifully orchestrated, I was especially intrigued by the circuitous pathways of the tree branches and wondered what environmental events caused these unsual growth patterns and gnarly branches reaching up towards the sky. Oh the stories and wisdom that each of these trees must possess.

Upon closer inspection, I was awestruck by the incredible patterns and textures along the tree trunks.

As it is still winter time here in Northern California, I wasn't expecting to see many flowers, so it was a wonderful surprise to see a large variety of colorful blooms with many more to follow with the seasonal changes.

The foliage was lush with color and texture.

The beautiful historic home was open to visitors and was ornately decorated and furnished. I will definitely be revisiting several of these motifs for future carved block printing!

The last collection of photos relates to doorways found throughout the Filoli grounds. Going through each portal was exciting as new adventures and vistas awaiting me on the other side.

I am so excited about this beautiful collaboration with Barbara and Susan. The first few months have led to incredibly thoughtful conversations about our art, in addition to several garden-themed finishes to put towards a future exhibition. It will be interesting to see how our project evolves through future creative adventures, garden visits, and playdates.