John Dickinson: Design

John Dickinson said, 

"Taste is a word I avoid. Good or bad, it's all so nebulous. The more you're dealing with taste, the more you're on shaky ground. Vulgarity to me is another matter. Vulgarity has great vitality."

"There's no cop-out in using pairs of things in a room. Matching chairs, sofas, lamps or tables can bring discipline, strength and balance to a scheme."

"You cannot do a lasting room design based on a current fad or novelty. There's a fine line between being amusing and being eccentric. A whole room based on amusing things would not be a laugh."

"There are many places in a house that do not warrant expensive furnishings. It's really not essential to spend everywhere. Muslin curtains can be the prettiest things in the world if they're sewn beautifully. You just don't have to make a big production of everything in a room."

"Some of the easiest things to use as inexpensive accessories are natural objects. Seashells are heaven. The bigger the better. Coral's marvellous if you can get big pieces of it. It must be large—little pieces don't mean anything."

"I have long thought that if one has a fireplace, to feel one must out of necessity and total obligation hang something over it is absolute nonsense. I think a blank space over a mantel is very interesting. "

"I don't like viewing my designs as sculpture. It's too pretentious. This is not art, it's decorating. It's not fine art, it's decorative art and there's a world of difference."
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Garden Design writing is traditionally, as Anne of Green Gables said, "A perfect graveyard of buried hope."  Instead, I mine ALL the arts and apply to Garden Design.
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The Style Saloniste has  pics with the quotes above.  I remember most of the pics when they first appeared in magazines.  
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Dickinson's last quote, above is not applicable to Garden Design.  When working with Nature it would be the greatest failure not to apply the elements of pollinator habitat.  And the work of Nature is the purest ART.
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Pic above lost provenance.
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