Elizabeth Boults and Chip Sullivan are celebrated landscape architects, artists, and educators whose work bridges the worlds of art, ecology, and storytelling. With decades of experience at the University of California (Davis and Berkeley), they have inspired generations of students to see landscapes not just as spaces, but as living narratives full of history, mystery, and meaning. Their latest collaboration, Wisdom of Place, explores the “spirit of place,” blending deep research, drawing, and a sense of wonder to reconnect people with the natural world. In this conversation, they share their insights on creativity, environmental stewardship, and the magic that happens when art meets nature.
HI ELIZABETH BOULTS AND CHIP SULLIVAN! WELCOME TO WORLDAUTHORS.ORG! COULD YOU PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELVES TO OUR READERS AND TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR PERSONAL AND CREATIVE JOURNEY AS ARTISTS, EDUCATORS, AND COLLABORATORS?
Elizabeth is Senior Lecturer in the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at University of California, Davis. Her areas of focus are landscape representation, history, and site design. Her research and professional practice reflect her enduring interest in the connections between art and science, and are founded on elevating environmental consciousness and ecological narratives. Elizabeth holds a leadership position within the American Society of Landscape Architects.
Chip Sullivan is an artist and Professor Emeritus of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at University of California, Berkeley, who has devoted his career to promoting landscape architecture as an art form. Chip has earned national and international recognition for his expertise in landscape representation as well as innovative energy-conserving design. He is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, the American Society of Landscape Architects, and the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture.
We both are lifelong learners, passionate about sharing what we learn with others. As landscape architects we see the world through a lens of art, ecology and metaphysics. Like many people, we find a spiritual connection in gardens, and believe that nature holds a form of consciousness. We strive to bring this environmental awareness to our students and readers through our writings, lectures, and participatory workshops.
YOUR LATEST WORK, WISDOM OF PLACE, IS ROOTED IN THE IDEA OF THE “SPIRIT OF PLACE.” WHAT DOES THAT CONCEPT MEAN TO EACH OF YOU, AND HOW DID YOU GO ABOUT CAPTURING IT THROUGH YOUR COLLABORATIVE PROCESS?
One of the foundational principles of the profession of landscape architecture is the concept of “genius loci” or spirit of place. Basically it means to truly understand all aspects of a place before you endeavor to change it. Don’t build in a floodplain or cut down a forest; there are consequences to ignoring natural patterns and processes. The ancient Romans wrote about this idea, Indigenous peoples around the world abide by the concept, and the 18th century English poet Alexander Pope used the term to describe the attributes of a successful garden.
Our ancient ancestors viewed the landscape as sacred and honored deities of nature. Cultural beliefs expressed through folklore, myths and legends have at their core an ethic of conservation. If you believe the river is your mother, you are less likely to pollute it. Part of our pedagogy and teaching is to help people value and reconnect with the natural world to recover that sense of wonder and enchantment.
YOU DRAW INSPIRATION FROM A WIDE AND IMAGINATIVE RANGE—ALCHEMY, FIREFLIES, OLD LIBRARIES, NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS, AND MORE. HOW DO THESE ELEMENTS INFLUENCE YOUR CREATIVE THINKING AND VISUAL STORYTELLING?
We are fascinated by way that the complexities of the world have been interpreted and expressed throughout time, and try to cultivate our own inquisitiveness and curiosity in similar fashion. We love how knowledge has been collected and represented in a diversity of traditional and non-traditional art forms. Songlines, maps, illustrations, cabinets of curiosity, petroglyphs, etc., are snapshots of a time and place. Our creative process starts with observation—being present in a place, and then recording or documenting our experiences through drawing. We fill a lot of sketchbooks! Drawing is a way to fully engage with place. Looking back over our drawings we’ll always find something that wasn’t immediately apparent, and that can often start a new line of research.
Today’s world is visual. We are both visual thinkers and enjoy the challenge of presenting concepts in graphic form. Visual narratives, like comics, are easy for a general audience to comprehend and provide many avenues for people to engage with material beyond what text and captioned photography can support.
AS EXPERIENCED EDUCATORS IN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AND HUMAN ECOLOGY, HOW DO YOUR ACADEMIC ROLES INFORM THE THEMES YOU EXPLORE IN YOUR CREATIVE PROJECTS?
We both teach courses in drawing, design and creative thinking, as well as lecture on design history. Teaching and research go hand in hand, and each informs the other. In addition to our program’s core curricular requirements, we have been fortunate to have been able to develop courses that align with our personal interests; for example, Elizabeth’s seminar on themes of feminism and environmentalism in the animé films of Hayao Miyazaki, and Chip’s graduate seminar on sacred landscapes. We also learn so much from our students and the frames of reference they bring to our classes. Students at our universities come from all over the world and we’ve been able to find commonalities in how different cultural practices reflect a particular awareness of the spirit of place.
YOUR BOOKS, SUCH AS ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF LANDSCAPE DESIGN AND CARTOONING THE LANDSCAPE, BLEND HISTORY, IMAGINATION, AND ARTISTIC REPRESENTATION. HOW DO YOU BALANCE SCHOLARLY RIGOR WITH MAGICAL REALISM IN YOUR WORK?
We do a lot of research on the topics that interest us. Oftentimes a single thread will lead us to a multitude of new ideas, and we start to find connections and patterns between things. Like history, design is story telling. And creativity means putting things together in new ways. Ultimately, the magic is real. Bees DO dance, birds DO migrate according to magnetic patterns, trees DO communicate with each other. Scientists have proven that access to nature reduces stress, lowers blood pressure and increases memory, among other benefits. We’re just shining a light on the fantastic phenomena that occurs daily, seasonally, and annually in the world around us.
YOU’VE MENTIONED YOUR BELIEF IN MAGIC AND THE DESIRE TO SPARK CHILDLIKE WONDER IN YOUR AUDIENCE. WHY DO YOU THINK THAT KIND OF WONDER IS SO IMPORTANT TODAY, AND HOW CAN ART AND LANDSCAPE HELP US RECONNECT WITH IT?
Surprisingly, our mission to re-enchant the landscape has not been a hard sell. People are hungry for ways to promote health and wellbeing in a personal as well as global context. More green time and less screen time is our response! We joke that “NI” (natural intelligence) is an antidote to the prevalence of “AI” in our lives today. Part of our motivation for Wisdom of Place was as a response to what we feel is the loss of a connection to nature that people are experiencing today. So much technological interface has distanced us from the natural world. We are losing our ability to understand what was intuitive to our ancestors, how to read the language of nature and hold it sacred. People still throw coins in fountains and knock on wood, but they no longer recognize the significance of those practices; they don’t associate them with the sanctity of the well or the protection of the forest.
HOW DOES SKETCHING OR PARTICIPATING IN A “SPIRITUAL WALK” ENHANCE SOMEONE’S CONNECTION TO THE LANDSCAPE, AND WHAT CAN THE AVERAGE PERSON LEARN FROM THESE PRACTICES?
Like a pub crawl, a sketch crawl is a popular way for groups of people to get to know a place and build community. You don’t have to be an accomplished artist to participate. We put a different spin on the sketch walk by incorporating aspects of meditation and imagination in addition to drawing. For example, we start with “grounding” exercises that focus on how the earth supports our bodies physically and spiritually. We ask people to listen to the voice of water and write haiku poems about it, and we have participants draw the invisible mycelium (mushroom) network that exists beneath a woodland. All these activities help build one’s awareness of not only the beauty but the ecology of a place. Just going outside, taking deep breaths, and feeling how the sun or a breeze sweeps across your skin can help you feel like you’re at one with nature.
MANY OF YOUR WORKS SPEAK TO SUSTAINABILITY, CONSCIOUSNESS, AND HARMONY WITH NATURE. HOW DO YOU SEE YOUR ARTISTIC MESSAGE CONTRIBUTING TO THE BROADER DIALOGUE AROUND ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS AND STEWARDSHIP?
By illustrating the nature-based archetypes that are common to people across the globe, we feel that we’re not only merging art and science in an accessible way, but also providing a perspective that can unite people to work towards environmental consciousness and stewardship. We all share the same sun, moon, and stars, as well as oceans, mountains and deserts. Biomes and geographic boundaries do not follow political boundaries. Understanding the balance of life on earth, and how we are all connected to every other living thing, is a good start.
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO YOUNG ARTISTS, WRITERS, OR DESIGNERS WHO WANT TO EXPLORE THE METAPHYSICAL OR SPIRITUAL DIMENSIONS OF NATURE THROUGH THEIR OWN CREATIVE WORK?
Besides using drawing as a tool of observation and analysis, we encourage emerging professionals to bravely follow their own path and stay true to their authentic selves. Everyday is an opportunity to do the coolest thing ever, to take another step on the journey. Find your elixir, overcome your obstacles, and listen to your heart. Hug trees, smell roses, dip your toe in the water.