About the Author
Born the eldest of three equally talented daughters to an architect/nature photographer father and a mother with a lifelong passion for flowers and gardens, I was destined to have a deep reverence for the environment and an innate understanding of what the Japanese call wabi-sabi: the art of finding beauty in the imperfections and elegance of nature, of accepting the natural cycles of flourishing growth and decay/death.
My early years were spent blissfully engaged with all manners of creativity and adventure as I grew up in the forests, pastures, and gardens of Shelburne Farms in Shelburne, Vermont. In those days we were given complete freedom to play in and explore the hundreds of acres surrounding our rural home and the mythic buildings that dotted the farm—relics of the late nineteenth century Gilded Age designed by the prominent architect Robert H. Robertson. I believe that growing up with these remarkable buildings and out in the wilds of nature laid the seeds for what would later become my art/career path of expression: the building of faerie houses and other environmental sculpture works.
As with all mythic adventures, the traveler must go away before they can return home, and so it was with me. I was fortunate to be able to make my living as a professional watercolor artist for over 22 years and to travel to many sacred and magical locations. I also explored the internal landscape with deep excursions into mythology, meditation, and ancient studies, which captured my imagination and fed back into the matrix of my creative work.
Having returned to the northern forests once more, this book offers an opportunity to share some of the technical skills I have developed along the way. I love living on the fringe of what is considered “normal” and continue to thrive in the liminal spaces between the visible and invisible realms, where magic still exists and the flow of timelessness is experienced regularly. I am a bridge person, of that I am sure … The rest is still a work in progress.
Sally J. Smith
www.greenspiritarts.blogspot.com
