Nasturtiums and Machine Guns

I went to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum specifically to see a special exhibition and learned an exciting fact about the Museum. Isabella's favorite flowers were nasturtiums. So are mine! La la la. For one week before and one week after her birthday on April 14th, the museum hangs garlands of nasturtiums from the courtyard windows. They begin growing the flowers 10 months in advance - so somewhere there are 5 month old nasturtium garlands hanging out, hopefully aphid free. I'd better get started now for my birthday in May. Here's a photo of a nasturtium garland that I took in Spain:



and here's what they look like close up (from my 2004 garden, pre-aphid invasion):


The exhibition was impressive - creative and mesmerizing. The write-up on the postcard reads as follows:

Cliff Evans: Empyrean
November 9, 2007- January 12, 2008
This digital polyptych with photomontage animation recalls the form of
15th-century Northern European altar-pieces merged with contemporary
advertising narratives. Scene after scene of Evan's five-channel projection
creates an absurd spectacle around the subjects of power and social
control coded with interesting and often humorous subtexts.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum's Web site has more information as well as an image.