Environments

Visionary Environments

I am completely fascinated with what drives individuals to spend a huge proportion of their life creating visionary environments. By visionary environments I mean, not your normal run of the mill home and garden that you see in magazines but a space that the individual has to build, is driven to build and will spend every waking hour expressing that need, obsessed perhaps to the point of being ostracised by their family or community.

The individual may not even be able to explain why they need to build it or even if it has any purpose other than the joy (or sometimes pain) of the journey and the innate need to create. These environments may not even be aesthetic or pleasing but can be incredibly detailed, wild and out of this world! And so, so inspiring! There are places like this all over the world, some of them are quite famous and others very obscure. Some may be known as - Outsider Art.

In many cultures and societies throughout history innumerable monuments have been created because of vision, faith, greed and power. Think of the Vatican, the Pyramids, Taj Mahal and the Colosseum to name a few, all of which are incredible, amazing and breathtaking to visit. Visionary environments are a bit different in that they are usually (but not always) created by one person for that person only and not produced by an army of slaves (or very low paid workers) for a person or entity in power.

Because of this fascination, I have made it my mission to visit as many visionary environments as possible. A bucket list….I guess you would call it. As I have been “a good little vegemite” (an Australian term) and worked hard and saved my pennies I have been able to visit a few of them now. WOW! WOW! WOW!

La Maison Picassiette, Chartres, France

Just one of these is La Maison Picassiette created by Raymonde Isidore in Chartres, France. I had lusted over the photos of this visionary environment (his home) for about 15 years and on entering this incredible place, I burst into tears. It was overwhelming and incredibly inspiring and every square inch was covered in mosaic and colour, even the stove!

The Rock Garden in Chandigarh, India

This is another amazing place. Created by Nek Chand who died recently at the age of 94. This visionary environment has over 2,800 sculptures and his work is being continued today by a dedicated group of followers.

The Tarot Gardens, Capalbio, Italy

Set in the beautiful Tuscany countryside, the Tarot Gardens are breathtaking. The artist, Nikki de Saint Phalle even lived inside the breast of the Empress!