LAURA FISHER DESIGNS
Bedford, New York 

I have been gardening for almost thirty years and I am still constantly amazed at Nature’s colors and forms. The garden’s textures, colors, and shapes have been the main inspiration for my textile artwork. I prefer deeply textured leaves, like Astilboides tabularis, as it unfurls in early spring; small flowers whose subtle differences are discovered only when studied closely, like the fritillaries, snowdrops, and other species of bulbs; and vines that seem to engulf other plants and shrubs, like Clematis Betty Corning, birdhouse gourds, and Quamoclit.

I am constantly both soothed and dazzled by the garden’s surprises—seedlings that have grown in between hidden stones; memories of a solitary white tulip with a single red stripe on it amidst an entire bed of pure white tulips I had planted in the fall; a new lily with the most delicious scent I could imagine; a Papaver somniferum whose seed I had harvested years ago from a dear departed friend’s garden in Ireland; and the most important plant to flower for me this year – a miniature rose that my son, Andrew, gave to me for Mother’s Day five years ago – his presence still in my garden.