about

As a child, I often ran errands with my mother on foot and I looked forward to getting a peek at the tiny Japanese garden adjacent to the neighborhood flower shop. I loved the perfectly coiffed bonsai trees and the lantern, but the Smurf-sized wooden bridge was my favorite. How I longed to be that small, just so I could walk on it.

My aunt prided herself in taking me to museums on the weekends and although I do not remember paying much attention, I did gain an appreciation for impressionist art.  I particularly liked the vibrant work of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas and Claude Monet.

It was not until I attended college that I made the connection to my love of travel and languages to that little bridge in the Japanese garden. That same bridge was present in Monet's, Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies and ironically, Japanese art is known to have been an influence in the French impressionist movement.

In 2002, I travelled to Japan for the first time and it was there that I realized my lifelong dream of walking through an authentic Japanese garden that was just my size.

Photograph Courtesy of Michael Fernandez