Artful Gardening

James D. Watts Jr.

"Shopping plays an important role in my art," said Jennifer Vanderpool. Her installations make use of domestic items like cake molds and carpet baking to create landscapes within landscapes. Courtesy Tour mixes installation art with beautiful backyards. Jennifer Vanderpool's purpose in life was set early on -- at least, as far as her mother was concerned.

"I was raised to be a domestic goddess," the Los Angeles-based artist said. "My mother's aspirations for me was that I would throw these enormous dinner parties that would have these incredible table settings. And for years, she kept all the Laura Ashley dresses she had bought for me on the off-chance that I'd need them and wear them some day."

Vanderpool -- whose outfit on this day consists of jeans, high-heeled sandals and a long-sleeved pink shirt emblazoned with the word "Bliss" -- laughed at the memory.

"She finally asked me last year if I knew of some charity where those dresses could be donated," she said. "Mother said, 'Maybe somebody could get some use out of them.' "

Vanderpool may not have devoted her life to the sort of domestic perfection people used to associate with Martha Stewart. But the accoutrements of the "domestic goddess" play a large role in the installation art she now creates.

One of those installation works is part of the fifth annual Living With Art in the Garden tour, presented by Living Arts of Tulsa.

The lawns and gardens of six homes in the neighborhood of Utica Square, 21st Street and Utica Avenue, will be given over for two days to a range of installation and conventional art created by local artists.

The gardens on the tour are:

2202 E. 26th St.
3818 S. Florence Ave.
2618 E. 37th St.
4418 E. 38th St.
5138 E. 35th St.
243 Waverly Drive.

Artists whose work will be on display this year are Leslie Alden, Eric Baker, Shawn O'Neal, Julie Strauss, Pam and Randy Smith, Virginia Harrison, Raymond Tyler, Brenda Spencer, Cynthia Brown, Julie Thomas, Lisa Regan, Cindy Williams, Josh Marrs and Tana Van Cleave.

This is the second year the tour has included a featured artist. Vanderpool's participation in the show is made possible through the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Vanderpool's installation is titled "Sugary Sweet," and includes objects made using, among other things, cake molds.

"I'm interested in landscapes -- not just the physical, but also the psychological and emotional," said Vanderpool, who teaches at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Otis College of Art and Design. "And if there is an overarching theme to my work, it's this idea of domesticity. I like to take items that are associated with the home and integrate them intoa different landscape.

"In a way, it's like creating an artificial environment within another natural yet artificial environment," Vanderpool said. "A garden is not, strictly speaking, a natural landscape. It's been formed, created by someone. So my work is about what people do to create a beautiful environment, and not differentiating between what's 'natural' and what isn't."