The Mud Maid from Cornwall’s Lost Gardens of Heligan has a new cousin in Victoria.
The Moss Lady is an almost completed 36-foot-long sculpture in Beacon Hill Park.
Conceived and created by gardener Dale Doebert with help from other city employees, it portrays a sleeping, moss-covered woman who appears partly submerged in the earth.
Doebert says the artwork, to be officially unveiled in December, was directly inspired by photographs he saw of the Mud Maid earth-sculpture found in the Lost Gardens of Heligan. Located near Mevagissy in Cornwall, the Lost Gardens are one of England’s most popular botanical gardens.
The Moss Lady looks almost identical to the Mud Maid.
The Victoria sculpture’s six-foot-long cement head was created by fellow City of Victoria employees Louie Macedo and Jamie De Amaral.
“They usually do rock walls and side walks. But they’re artistic,” said Steve Curry, the city’s supervisor of horticulture and nursery operations.
Construction started on the sculpture in the spring, with city workers putting an estimated 300 hours into the project.
Curry said it cost about $30,000 to create the Moss Lady. Workers fit its construction around their regular duties.
“As far as the taxpayer goes, it’s been minimal costs, because it’s basically just been the materials,” Doebert said.
The Moss Lady is located in a shady clearing behind Cameron Bandshell. A brook babbles nearby. The sculpture was constructed with cement, boulders, metal pipe, vinyl-coated chicken wire and a clay-based soil. The soil is especially designed to have an acidic PH suitable for moss.
Doebert said he and his wife spent five hours harvesting cat-tail moss and club moss from Crown land near Shawnigan Lake, where they live. The moss, providing a clothing-like covering for the Moss Lady, was applied two weeks ago.
“I got nailed by wasps when we were out there getting it. I guess they’re a little ornery in the fall,” Doebert said.
An irrigation system mists the moss three times a day. The sculpture’s “hair” is flowering crocosmia plants.
Doebert and Curry said they have had only positive feedback about the Moss Lady so far.
“I’ve had a lot of people coming here, they’re just emotional about it. I had one guy who was in tears. Actually, he lost his brother in the park. And his brother was into this kind of stuff. He just broke down into tears, he was so happy to see it,” Doebert said.
“For me, Beacon Hill Park is a place to come and forget about your worries. Tranquillity. And to relax. I felt the whole atmosphere of the babbling brook and the lady lying down just kind of personified Beacon Hill Park.”
