Thursday 5 January
Chelsea Dreams & Nightmares!
Andy dreams about Chelsea
The Chelsea dreams have started, and not the ones about winning Gold. Far from it in fact. In my dream I completely forgot I was doing a Chelsea garden and was wandering around the show ground the day before when someone asked me how my garden was coming on. ‘I’m not doing a garden’ I said. ‘Yes you are’ came the reply. I was shown my plot and working through the night I did the best I could but only managed to make a garden the size of a small car and it was utter rubbish. I didn’t even get a bronze.
In another version I forgot to apply for a garden and was given a rather small plot inside the marquee at Hampton Court which nobody saw. I know little of dream analysis but all this undoubtedly stems from the fact that with Christmas out of the way and only 4 months left before we arrive on site I have nothing to show for my endeavours. Nothing has actually been made. Not a sausage. There is a reason for this. The oak bench can’t be made until later as I want it to have the wonderful honey colour of new timber. The stone can’t be ordered yet as the cost is astronomical and we are exploring other options which may even be better.
The sculpture has hopefully been started and I will get to see a very small section soon but as yet I have seen nothing and the entire garden relies on this sculpture so I am rather nervous. Very nervous in fact as I know what I want it to look like but I don’t yet know if the people making it share my vision. I will only know when I see this first small section and there is not a remote chance it will be exactly as I want it which will give us about 3 weeks to collaboratively perfect the prototype before full production begins. If we don’t hit this deadline then my dream scenario gets one step closer to becoming real.
Andy Sturgeon
M&G Garden 2012 designer
