FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Review of Art Goes Wild at New England Wild Flower Society

By Karin Stanley

Don't miss ART GOES WILD in its autumn splendor, a review by Karin Stanley.

Flying Saucers at ART GOES WILD by New England Wild Flower Society/Gary Sloan

Sculptor and garden designer/ writer from Natick, Massachusetts, originally from Ireland,  was a featured artist at last year’s exhibit ROCK ON  at Garden in the Woods.  

It is that time of year where the sun hangs low and one can enjoy the glittering fall parade amongst golden boughs and the deep rich light of the post-autumnal equinox. During these lingering weeks before All Hallows Eve, the garden settles into its glorious garments of golds and ochres, and the Garden in the Woods goes wild.

My recent trip there was like going to visit an old friend. I became intimately involved with this amazing garden a year ago when I was invited as one of eight artists to participate in the ROCK ON Show. This year, once again, the New England Wild Flower Society picked a real rock star.  Landscape Architect and  environmental artist  W. Gary Smith, was invited to create their 2007 show, Art Goes Wild.  If you have any time within the next fortnight, don’t miss this fabulous show. It will inspire you this winter with ideas and creative insight that will percolate indoors, and entice you to bring some of these artistic and accessible ideas into your own gardens in the spring.

It’s particularly stunning to see the Art Goes Wild show at the end of its run, where the installations from a few months ago have matured.  The masterful and ultra-creative hands and mind of W. Gary Smith have transformed parts of this already magical  45-acre native plant botanical garden into an artful and deeply spirited place.

W. Gary Smith’s innovative and organic artistry leads us down many paths, surprising us along the way.  There are eleven installations throughout the Garden,  all using wildflowers in sumptuous  and clever ways,  giving each area a  unique and distinct personality which is in tune with the habitat, microclimate and ecosystem.   The printed program illustrates the journey, and I enjoyed every part of it starting with the first-the Beech Colonnade.  Indeed, why not have  a beech colonnade?  What a great idea.  Nature’s columns create an organic archway, providing structure in the winter, dreamy softness in the spring, and dramatic action in the summer. The Fiddlehead Labyrinth planted in a spiral swirl is imaginatively playful, and entirely effective. You have to bring it home.  Labyrinths can be planted with a variety of shrubs and plants. One of the stunning surprises where Smith knits organic beauties into the folded plants is the Yin-Yang Garden.  A glade of hay scented fern, Dennstaedtia punctilobula embraces you on the path, these knitted reeds in situ. It is all quite sublime. The whimsical dragon, snake-like installation up in the glade is glorious as we follow its humorously woven path through the trees. We can gather our sticks and create little [Goldsworthiesque] stations throughout our own woodlands. Families will be infused with these artful expressions in nature to perhaps built their own.

 Close to the meadow and bog garden, one comes across the whimsy of the Flying Saucer Garden with elevated silver planters with Opuntia  and Yucca was dramatic and bold. It was a humorous surprise and brings a modern twist into the natural setting..

Finally, to the Rare Plant Garden where I spent a lot of time last year while my main sculpture was here and Society Horticulture staff Tom Smarr, Rolf Schilling  and  Scott La Fleur  worked carefully with this complex installation.  This year it is host to a crowd of grass called Gathering of Grass.  I loved it.  This hill in the Rare Plant garden was adorned with wild oats (Chasmanthium latifolium ) standing like penguins on an iceberg, with its huddled group of golden vertical structures, each mirroring its own personality.

As an artist and designer, I enjoyed the spirited and spiritual connections with the earth, whimsical humor, clever use of materials and plants along with story and nostalgia. In Art Goes Wild, those beloved features are matched by strong and well-conceived design, making this show surprising, unpredictable, and entirely appealing.  Before you carve your pumpkins, make the time to visit the garden going wild.

The New England Wild Flower Society put together a list of native plants and their uses throughout the exhibit along with helpful links to other sites.  Ask for a copy when you visit.  The exhibit continues through October 31, 2007 and trails stay open to members through November, weather permitting. See all the details at www.newenglandwild.org or phone 508-877-7630.  Next year the Society brings back the exhibit BIG BUGS by David Rogers, opening July 12, 2008.

Karin Stanley Sculptor and Garden Designer 508 655 6616,  www.Karinstanley.com

Photos available.

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