The Earth as Sacred Garden: Art, Nature and Spirit

Adele Seronde, as a painter and gardener, viewed the whole Earth as a “Sacred Garden.” Join the Natural History Institute for a special artist talk on the late Adele Seronde’s work and views, presented by her son, Antoine Seronde.

Human beings evolved in the rich ecological interfaces between forests, savannah grasslands, rivers, and lakes in Africa. We carry memories of this in our myths of a primordial paradise, the Garden of Eden. As we settled more and more densely in villages, towns and cities, we have tried to create images of our ancestral environments through parks and public gardens, the “sacred gardens” of temples and cathedrals, and the kitchen gardens and decorative cottage gardens around our homes. Gardens provide us with a multi-sensory environment through which to reconnect with nature and with our deeper spiritual selves.

As our gardens themselves have become a main point of positive personal contact with nature, they have become a metaphor for the Earth as a whole and our relationship with it. Adele Seronde’s view of the Earth as Sacred Garden lives on in her work, and NHI is proud to play a part in her ongoing legacy.

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