“Giant Terrarium GT02,” 2009 (detail) by Paula Hayes
GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Frederik Meijer Gardens Sculpture Park has gardens surrounding sculpture, and works of art by Rodin, Henry Moore and Mark di Suvero who were sculptors but not gardeners.
Artist and designer Paula Hayes is one of the few who puts the two together.
Frederik Meijer Gardens Sculpture Park
What: Secchia Garden Lecture with Paula Hayes
When: 7 p.m. Tues. April 30, 2013
Where: Meijer Gardens, 1000 E. Beltline Ave. NE
Admission: Lecture is free with normal admission: $12 adults, $9 seniors/students, $6 ages 5-13, $4 ages 3-4,free for children age 2 and younger.
More info: RSVP for the lecture at 616-975-3144 or email skilroy@meijergardens.org
An artist and gardener whose work unifies horticulture and sculpture will speak at Meijer Gardens next week to discuss her high-end terrariums.
Hayes gives the Secchia Garden Lecture at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 30, 2013 at Meijer Gardens.
The New York City-based artist, who grew up on a farm, blends sculpture and garden design in a way that is uniquely hers.
“She and her work defy simple categorization—she inhabits the aesthetic…of art, sculpture, landscape design, architecture, gardening, horticulture, and environmentalism,” said Richard D. Marshall, art historian, in his forward to her recently published book titled “Paula Hayes.”
She’s best known for art terrariums of organically shaped, hand-blown glass, varying widely in size and scale from tabletop-sized domes, teardrops and “peanuts” to room-sized installations of giant terrariums called “slugs,” 14-feet long mounted to a wall or vertical models standing 13 feet high, each a well-planned landscape in miniature.
Though trained as a sculptor, the direction of Hayes’ career began almost by accident when she was invited to design a garden for an exhibition at Salon 94 in New York City, taking advantage of the fact you could see out through solarium windows into a garden.
“It was in the winter, in November through January, so it was magical,” she said. “Inside was a tropical garden and outside was the New York City winter.”
A new career as a terrarium artist was born.
“It just kind of exploded. People hadn’t really seen terrariums as works of art,” she said. “It kind of struck a nerve with this little world in a bubble that you can take care of.”
Terrariums aren’t new. They were popular in the late 1800s and again at the dawn of the environmental movement.
“In the Victorian era, they were utilitarian — sort of a parlor environment because they were used to bring plants across the ocean from tropical areas,” Hayes said. “In the 1970s, they were kind of a recycled, Mason jar, sort of a grungy thing.”
Hayes has been featured recently on CBS-TV “Sunday” and “MoMA: Behind the Scenes” and was featured in the March edition of ARTNews.
Hayes has exhibited her terrariums internationally, with recent shows at Museum of Modern Art in New York City; in the Wexner Art Center in Columbus, Ohio; and in the Tang Museum in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
But her passion for “all things green” extends to outdoor gardens as well. She’s been commissioned to create more than 20 private gardens across the United States.
In her lecture at Meijer Gardens, Hayes will discuss her art terrariums as well as her “dumpling” planters, made of soft rubber, and her organically shaped silicone containers designed for outdoor gardens. She’ll discuss how she incorporates them within the landscapes she has designed.
Her new book, “Paula Hayes,” will be available for purchase and signing at the lecture.
“Behind the Scenes: Paula Hayes, Nocturne of the Limax maximus”
E-mail Jeffrey Kaczmarczyk: jkaczmarczyk@mlive.comSubscribe to his Facebook page or follow him on
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