The Garden of OzGail Cottman
Extant
Los Angeles, California, 90046, United States
Begun 1991
The Garden of Oz is not open to the public at this time.
About the Artist/Site
Gail Cottman on The Garden of Oz:
"The Garden of Oz is a children's folk art/peace garden located in Beachwood Canyon. Started in 1990, over 75 artists have contributed to the project, including America's renowned artist Beatrice Wood. (The garden commemorates her 100th birthday.)
Oz celebrates nature, whimsy, and the child in all of us. It appeals to the inherent sweetness in all of us. You enter the garden in Munchkinland and follow the Yellow Brick Road to Emerald City where a tile reads, "Look in the mirror and see who you really are – you are Oz."
Children are encouraged to follow their own bliss, create their own magic, and to be the wizard of their lifetime.
Families in Beachwood Canyon who take the Oz pledge are given keys and allowed to enjoy the garden during the daytime. They are encouraged to sweep and care for the garden one day each month.
The two main themes of the Garden of Oz are: Peace starts in a garden. Peace is personal."
____
In 1991, Gail Cottman began working with her contractor, Manuel Rodríguez, to design a creative way to display her plants. Rodríguez laid a plain concrete bed, and Cottman began to ornament it, inlaying pieces of tiles and glittering beads. It is said that she was inspired by the story of the Wizard of Oz, and particularly the counsel that everyone could become his/her own wizard, so she soon began to expand the constructed and planted areas around the garden. She invited several of her local artist friends—including, notably, renowned ceramic artist Beatrice Woods—to help adorn the increasing number of paths and retaining walls of this hillside space.
Among the references to the Wizard of Oz are “Munchkinland,” with its yellow-brick road, as well as a “throne” for the heroine, Dorothy. Additional “thrones” are dedicated to Cottman’s favorite musicians, from Elvis Presley to Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and John Lennon, but also to those she considers to have been world-changing peacemakers, including the Dalai Lama, Rosa Parks, and Yitzhak Rabin with Anwar Sadat.
Cottman and her friend Musako Morioka, a survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945, later created a “sister” garden, known as the “Garden of Us,” in Hiroshima’s Four Seasons Park.
On May 11, 2011, the Garden of Oz was declared Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument No. 996. Although the fence surrounding the garden is typically locked, most of the interior decorations are viewable from the street.
~Jo Farb Hernández
Contributors
Materials
concrete, tile, beads, ceramics
Map & Site Information
Los Angeles, California, 90046
us
Latitude/Longitude: 34.1147313 / -118.3637264
Nearby Environments
Post your comment
Comments
No one has commented on this page yet.