field that is temporarily replac
ing a raspberry patch while
the soil recovers from a dis
ease. Why wheat? “I just want
ed to look out over a sea of
grass,” she explains, admiring
the breeze-stirred grain, a
scene worthy of van Gogh.
Another new passion is
timber bamboo, which she
says is growing a foot a day. (It
must be the compost!) She
harvests the poles to make
trellises for herself and her
friends. In return, friends give
her their broken pottery,
which she embeds in her
cement sculptures, adding
color and whimsy to her work.
But her favorite part of the
garden is the spacious patio
she constructed from dyed
concrete bricks. Before the
bricks dried, she incised them
with a wild array of mystical
symbols, plus the occasional
paw prints from her four
legged helpers. The effect is
hieroglyphic, which is not sur
prising, since she admits to a
Kathy Oliver sharing a rare moment of rest with Zoomer
love of things Egyptian and
and Zeda on her mystical patio, while her newest
has even painted a large mural
sculpture looks on
of an Egyptian scene in her
house.
Arching over the patio is a very tall single
seedlings out of the ground. Still, all coexist in
span arbor that supports vigorous kiwi vines
this idyllic haven, which she keeps lush with
that, like the transcontinental railroad, will
the output from 10 compost heaps.
eventually meet. Gracing a nearby flower bed
One of her latest pet projects is a wheat
One
of many
animal
sculptures
Kathy Oliver
has created for her
wildlife paradise
is Olivers newest sculpture, a life-size female
form made from cement and copper pipes. “I
love curves—all the figures I’ve done are
female,” she says.
Many of her sculptures have an ancient
feel, as if they are really fragments remaining
from an earlier civilization. That, combined
with the many mature trees and shrubs,
creates a very serene environment.
Which is exactly what Oliver needs.
She calls gardening her therapy: “I
have an incredibly stressful job, and it
helps to come home and dig in the
dirt.”
It was regrouting her original patio
that first interested Oliver in the prop
erties of cement. “1 wondered if I could
make it round,” she recalls—which she
could and did, using a friend’s barbecue
to mold her first sphere.
“It was so heavy and dense. Then I
started embedding light, airy, fragile
porcelain cups. If 1 could embed bub
bles in cement, I would,” she adds
earnestly.
Her works seem to be a metaphor
for the human spirit—inherently
strong yet vulnerable—which is how
Kathy Oliver strikes me as well. She is
tall and fit, with the strength to lug
100-pound sculptures, yet her face is a
study in softness—one hopes from
years of smiles.
In winter while her garden rests,
Oliver busies herself with quilting. “I
just love creating with color—it has
nothing to do with people,” she says.
“Given my job, I need to have things
that have nothing to do with people.”
That may be true, but her creations have
everything to do with providing habitat for
animals and, yes, with making art.
Continued on Page 24
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