More Scope For The Imagination

Today I am beginning a new series on MosaiCanada, which happened here last year for Canada 150 and has been repeated this year for a second and final year. It goes until October 15th, for those of you in the area, I highly recommend making a visit. I stopped in this past Sunday on an overcast day.

The event takes place in Jacques Cartier Park over on the Gatineau shore of the Ottawa River, and features a series of topiary sculptures, living art. Some of them were here last year, while others are new. The first one is done in the shape of a train station, welcoming you to the exhibit. Plants are grown into the walls, and a bed is placed out front with the city's name spelled out in flowers.

The station house is very much like one you'd have found in small towns in the latter 19th century, with home for a station keeper's family incorporated with the working side of the structure. The track would run along this side, and in fact does as you'll see below. One of the topiaries can be seen reflected in the window.

A number of panels here examines the amount of work that goes into designing and carrying out a topiary sculpture, in this case one influenced by Canadian Frederic Back, first for an exhibition in Japan several years ago, and presently this piece is incorporated into this year's edition. Back has an extensive history in broadcasting, art, and film, and that topiary is drawn from an animated film he did adapting a short story, one that won him an Oscar in 1987. I'll show it to you down the line.

The train stands across a bed of flowers from the station- yet another topiary. Here are two angles on it. I'll have more of it from the visit, including tomorrow.

Turning back around gives us another view of the station.

More Scope For The Imagination is the title of this returning sculpture. It is, of course, the famous heroine of Canadian children's literature, the incorrigible Anne Shirley of Green Gables.