Glasshouse

This body of work was inspired by the glasshouses at West Dean.

A child is innocent, and approaches things openly, but through life’s eddies they become more guarded and closed, and view things as if through a clouded imperfect lens — like the windows of a glasshouse which are painted, and the doors closed to protect that which is inside.

The practice of painting the windows of the glasshouse only in summer, to protect the plants from over-exposure, is like a withdrawing from the world, an introspection. Washing them clean in the winter to maximise light — an opening up and a looking outward.

This Joni Mitchell song/Bible passage was also an inspiration:

… As a child I spoke as a child
I thought and I understood as a child
But when I became a woman
I put away childish things
And began to see through a glass darkly

Where as a child I saw it face to face
Now I only know it in part
Fractions in me
Of faith and hope and love
And of these great three
Love’s the greatest beauty …

— Joni Mitchell, “Love”, taken from 1 Corinthians 13