By: Jill Nokes, Pat Jasper (Contribution by), Betty Sue Flowers (Foreword by)

Hardcover

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Relatively few people in America build their own homes, but many yearn to make the places they live in more truly their own. Yard Art and Handmade Places profiles twenty homemakers who have used their yards and gardens to express their sense of individuality, to maintain connections to family and heritage, or even to create sacred spaces for personal and community refreshment and healing. Jill Nokes, an authority on native plants and ecological restoration, traveled across the state of Texas, seeking out residents who had transformed their yards and gardens into oases of art and exuberant personal expression. In this book, she presents their stories, told in their own words, about why they created these handmade places and what their yard art has come to mean to them and to their communities.

Rather than viewing yard art as a curiosity or oddity, Nokes treats it as an integral part of home-making, revealing how these places become invested with deep personal or social meaning. Yard Art and Handmade Places celebrates the fact that, despite the proliferation of look-alike suburbs, places still exist where people with ordinary means and skills are shaping space with their own hands to create a personal expression that can be enjoyed by all.

Foreword by Betty Sue Flowers
Acknowledgments
Places Full of Memory and Meaning
The Repertoire of the Garden
Cascada de Piedra Pinta
A Natural and Peaceful Spirit
Little by Little, He's Been Blessing Us
Stories from the Valley
The Love You Have To Do It
Placenames and Family
Mango's Jungle
The Ardent Virtuosity of Collectors' Gardens
One Big Cactus and Succulent Dish Garden
A Surprise Comes Every Day
Sculpture You Can Live In
The Flower Man
The Cathedral of Junk
Casa de Azuacute;car
Stories from the Panhandle
A Great Peaceful Place
The Only Trees for Miles Around
A Windbreak for the Homeplace
God and the Birdhouses Brought Us Together
A Lesson in Landmarks
This Is How You Stay Alive
Desires of the Heart
More Than Four Seasons
Notes
Index
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

ISBN: 9780292716797
ISBN-10: 0292716796
Audience: Professional
Format: Hardcover
Language: English
Number Of Pages: 224
Published: 1st November 2007
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Dimensions (cm): 21.7 x 23.9  x 2.2
Weight (kg): 0.916