A Visit with Joel Cole in Weaverville
Jane Austen has overtaken my world.
I know, you’re so used to me referencing science-fiction that this is a total one-eighty. But in addition to my love of All Things Trek, there’s another side: I grew up in an old house, amidst tons of books, surrounded by casual gardens of irises, poppies and wild carnations.
Due to the persuasions of Austen, an English country garden setting has pervaded my thoughts, and I have been talking to my rescue cat in (bad) prose, with an (even worse) British accent. But he is the sensible one, caring not for the status of my dowry, nor to hear about my prospects.
I was admittedly shocked upon entering Joel Cole’s yard in Weaverville, NC. Joel is an accomplished artist on several fronts, who it turns out is not full of pride about his activities. I didn’t learn until the end of my visit that I was standing in one of the “Best Small Gardens in Buncombe County.” I felt like I was suddenly on Austen’s Bennett family grounds – there was a casual elegance to it all, reflecting Joel’s seemingly limitless green thumbs.
Out front, dragonflies zoomed and danced over a square pond full of reeds, lilies and more, with frogs echoing here and there from within. Along the back, beautiful plants and flowers of all types caught my eye for as far as I could see. I thought the yard ended here, but it was really just a living partition, concealing two more large areas, one planted in quadrants, the other quite open, both thickly lined with more plants, shrubs and trees, with an occasional small statue appearing amidst it all.
There was such a variety of color, line, shape and flow. And an evident love of nature. Joel has found that balance of blending a little structure with a lot of letting plants do what they do, providing really interesting visual moments along the way. Joel explained that the back yard was once just a typically large, flat plane, which just kept evolving over the decades.
As we crouched down in the Japanese Zen garden, he pointed out a cicada carapace, which had been buried these past 17 years. I think about how it is only twelve cicada cycles back to Jane Austen’s heyday, and how everything’s connected.
Joel pointed out several plant groupings, examples of how the juxtaposition of textures is his desire. He likes his garden to have all these contrasting surfaces, explaining that this makes it all more visually interesting throughout the year. As an artist, I am prejudiced toward patterns and designs, so I get this, and began re-looking with this revised visual parameter, realizing that, despite an appearance of randomness, there is indeed something very intentional also going on here. This man has created fields of texture!
His art studio space sits like a fairy tale house amidst all this greenery, with large abbey-like windows on one side that take in a bit of the yard. In addition to painting, Joel draws incessantly, and he shared with me a typical sketch of a fantastical building. He explained that he starts with a staircase, and invents and improvises as he draws upward, imagining what it might be like if he lived inside. I can see how this creative process is very much akin to how his gardens developed, edging ever outward.
As we chatted on the north porch after my tour, surrounded by more plants in hangers, we were waxing philosophical about life’s journey, and Joel said: “My … life IS a garden – I guess it’s a parallel.” In a life rich with the textures borne out of experience and hard work, one where Joel Cole has settled into a comfortable peace, this ready acknowledgment of how simple it can all be is an important reminder to keep striving for a clean dove-tailing of Doing and Being.
Seeing the world through another creative person’s eyes can be quite invigorating. There is inspiration to be found in all sorts of creative meetings, and I was lucky enough to get to see Cole’s multi-faceted output, from drawings to paintings to faux-finishes in his house to what I now think of as “The Jane Austen Garden.”
We’re lucky in Western North Carolina to have an abundance of both national parks and back yard mini-park experiences. I am reminded to keep cultivating my art, planting ideas, and to strive to stay present, so that I can see where my… (ahem!)… emmagination may take my senses.