Field Notes 2020: Mike and Laura Bartunek
June 2020: Week 3
Architects and visual artists Mike and Laura Bartunek (who are also father and daughter) consider where they started, where they ended, and what they’ll miss about their June residency at Bloedel Reserve.
Day 13
Mike: I’m obsessing over the Strawberry Moon location in my painting. I’m putting too much research into it. Into locating it accurately. But that garden… the Reflective Garden – or the Reflective Pool – it’s an amazing space. How you come out of nowhere and enter into this little room defined by a hedge… You don’t look at the trees that enclose it, rather you focus immediately on the water.
Laura: People love that space… its simplicity… a hedge, water, grass… surrounded… You feel the wild wanting to creep in, ya know? The wild of trees pressed up against the volume of the space… control and wild in one simple gesture… You know what I love? That there is a certain rhythm to a walk at the Bloedel. Have you felt it?
Day 14
Laura: If you were to do an architectural investigation in the Bloedel where would you place it?
Mike: (long pause) It needs to be secluded… yeah… somewhere secluded. It’d be cool to do something on stilts in the bird marsh… an architecture of reeds with a simple act of cantilever.
Laura: Damn. I can’t beat that.
Day 15
Laura: I fell asleep by the Pond today. When I woke my hair and hands were bejeweled with dragonflies… Three ducks stood watching …
Mike: Catch me one of those dragonflies – I want to know its name…
Day 16
Laura: Dad you came in with a concept to paint – reflections – and you held true to that. I came in with an initial idea but it grew into something else.
Mike: It was a challenge to stay focused – to not get distracted with other beauties or vignettes to capture…
Laura: Took a lot of self-control, eh? What else was pulling your attention?
Mike: The flower meadow… The changing cadence of the flowers over our time here. It’s so alive now.
Day 17
Mike: I’m going to miss this. It’s the last day…
Laura: … miss our Bloedel…
Mike: My obsession has always been drawing and painting my grandfather’s farm… but this place. The Reserve. It’s a part of our life… When you were little, coming here for walks… It’s a place that feels almost familial… loved… I think it’s pulling my attention more and more. Perhaps my next obsession?
Laura: And what I’ll miss… It was gift to just draw. I’ll miss that.
