The windows in a classical Chinese garden are more than just apertures to let in light. The view through the window is carefully designed to be pleasing and beautiful. As the seasons change, the view changes as the plants and weather changes. Any rocks in the view acquire moss and patina. The view is an ever changing painting and nature is the painter.
Enter the Portland Chinese Garden and be treated to windows that are blocked by plants and kitschy nick knacks. Instead of viewing a delicate lattice of white camellia flowers kissed by a rare Taihu rock, you view a potted plant and two ceramic lions that probably cost 9.99 at Uwajimaya. Or you get a sign telling you about the furniture. It's like walking into an art museum and seeing some one's beer bottle collection set up in front of a Picasso.
The leap which the people at the garden have yet to make is that the view through a window is worth looking at. They don't see it as art. Not only do they butcher the plants in the view and uncover ugliness like traffic going by, they also desecrate the view with mundane objects. Just because nature is the artist and provides her services for free does not mean that what she offers isn't valuable. She offers us the beauty of diverse and ever changing life, while the people at the garden can only offer us stuff. Beauty is wasted on the ignorant.
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