farmlab's not a cornfield visit

yesterday was gorgeous. i am talking fresh air, blue skies, perfect clouds, snow capped mountains on the horizon, green all around you, people were outside. they couldn't get enough of it. it was AMAZING. the reason i can't leave la.
i was walking up to the atwater famer's market and a nice man walking by me said... "it is always after the rains that we are reminded of why we live in los angeles". very true. i made all my plans for the day with limited time indoors. so erick and i headed out for the nature in the city. we visited the la historic park, specifically the not a cornfield projectorignially created by farmlab. the park is loaded with creative forms for growing a wide variety of plants ranging from edibles, to native california flora (including my favorite hummingbird sage and ceanothus!), succulents and cacti and even random tropical and mediterranean varieties. the rain has pumped up the life in the wild flowers. i can't wait to see this place in the spring!

the garden is the brain child of la artist lauren bon. “not a cornfield is a living sculpture in the form of a field of corn. the corn itself, a powerful icon for millennia over large parts of central america and beyond, can serve as a potent metaphor for those of us living in this unique megalopolis. this work follows a rich legacy of radical art during the 20th century on a grand scale. i intend this to be an event that aims at giving focus for reflection and action in a city unclear about where it's energetic and historical center is. with this project i have undertaken to clean 32 acres of brownfield and bring in more than 1,500 truck loads of earth from elsewhere in order to prepare this rocky and mixed terrain for the planting of a million seeds. this art piece redeems a lost fertile ground, transforming what was left from the industrial era into a renewed space for the public. the california department of parks and recreation is currently designing the historical park this site will become. this design process has taken several years so far and is a difficult process both because of the many communities adjacent to the site they would all like to serve and because of limited funding. by bringing attention to this site throughout the not a cornfield process we will also bring forth many questions about the nature of urban public space, about historical parks in a city so young and yet so diverse. about the questions of whose history would a historical park in the city center actually describe, and about the politics of land use and it's incumbent inequities. indeed, "not a cornfield" is about these very questions, polemics, arguments and discoveries. it is about redemption and hope. It is about the fallibility of words to create productive change. Artists need to create on the same scale that society has the capacity to destroy.” (lauren bon. july 20, 2005)