Artists - Photos

Mollie Messimer and Betty Besal: Trail of Nests
Mollie Messimer and Betty Besal have created a Trail of Nests along which explorers will discover a variety of nest-like creations. The nests, some semi-realistic, some whimsical, were made primarily from materials found at Boxerwood.
Betty and Mollie were inspired by the many animal examples of these structures that embody artistry, the urge of instinct, diversity and nurture. Mollie encourages viewers to reflect on the “nesting instinct” that even humans possess: “Nests, whether made by birds, mammals, fish or reptiles are uniquely designed to protect eggs and nurture young. Yet a nest’s creation is hard-wired into each animal: the animal is driven to create its own distinctive nest. We always recognize the nest of a robin as being different from that of a hummingbird.”
Betty observes that “the layers of any nest, including the nest attachment, outer decorative layer, structure and even the lining are metaphors for our own human abodes, personalities and relationships.”
Mollie is a co-founder of the Boxerwood Education program and Betty is an arborist for the City of Lexington.

Greg Barton, Evelyn Norton and Trelsie Sadler: Book Birdhouses
We built birdhouses out of old books, twine and wood to create a new purpose for these books and to emphasize the importance of recycling. Each birdhouse is very different, but composed of the same materials – just as the birds that may use these houses appear in various shapes and colors, but are still all birds. We hope the birds enjoy their houses as much as we enjoyed building them.

Katherine Barnes, Dorinda Blackley and Olivia Robinson: Music Can
We wanted to make something interactive, recycled, and intriguing for kids of all ages.  We enjoy the mix of color, metal and nature. We wanted to send a fun message about helping the environment through Reuse, Reduce, Recycle.
We were inspired by “Make Noise” on the Play Trail Rules sign and hoped we could contribute something that would become a permanent fixture at Boxerwood. We hope people enjoy playing with our Music Can as much as we did making it!

Sharon Simkins: Plein Air Painting
I received my BFA from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and MA in Illustration from Syracuse University. I also have my own design studio, Dancing Lady Design, where I have had a successful 20-year career as a 3D product designer. Over the last 15 years I have focused on my fine art work with figures, abstracts, and landscapes in mixed media. I have been fortunate to participate in many art shows in the regional area and also to be a featured artist at Studio Eleven and The Nelson Gallery. I love making art as a means of processing my feelings and observations of the world around me.

Devan Malore and Yates Spencer: Sculptananarama
Devan Malore has been making art of different sorts all his life. After some years as a carpenter-craftsman-contractor, he feels a need to be healed of “making the world too flat, level, square, smooth and white.”
Devan finds beauty and inspiration in the creative process. He makes art from found, collected, discarded or gifted materials.  He has worked with wood, stone, glass, metal, earth, sand, sacred junk, and most recently, with driftwood from the Maury River.  He is inspired by the Buddhist concept of impermanence as experienced in the creation of intricate sand mandalas. The mandalas are destroyed not long after creation with ceremony and the gifting of sand to water, earth and human hands.
According to his collaborator, Yates Spencer, Devan and Yates view their project as “an epic and perhaps monumental exploration of the connections between your inner sculptor and Mother Earth. Dig in!”

Michael Kopald: Pyramid
Using mainly the earth and my labor for this project is very fulfilling.  The site provided by the grounds at Boxerwood is spectacular, and I am fortunate to be able to dig in undisturbed clay and reveal the beauty in the natural striations of the earth.  The problem solving, the design considerations, the mechanics, and the logistics are all elements that are engaging and fun for me.   This project is very much about intention and process.  I have never done anything quite like this before, and though I have dug countless holes in the ground, this project was never a sure thing to complete.  I only had an idea, and by applying steady work and a bit of patience, I have begun to see the fulfillment.  At each point it was only necessary to figure out and do the next thing...always process.

Cynthia Atkins: Haiku House and Language Path
Cynthia Atkins is a poet and assemblage artist. Her poetry collection, Psyche's Weathers, was published in 2007 by Wordtech.  In Cynthia’s collage/assemblage work, she likes the interplay and juxtapositions of language, image, color, texture and iconography. Making 'art works' out of recyclable materials that come out of our culture is part of the interest and intrigue for her, as well as shaking up and questioning our assumed contexts and cultural etymologies.   
Cynthia’s assemblage pieces have been exhibited in galleries and shows in Richmond, New York and Chicago, and in "Shrines and Shadow Boxes" (Rockport Publishers, 2006). She lives with her family on the Maury River of Rockbridge County, and is currently an adjunct professor of literature and creative writing at Roanoke College.

Jay Sullivan: Catching Butterflies
One of my favorite sights at Boxerwood is kids catching bugs and butterflies in the summer.  For my installation I plan to create a sculpture from branches and vines of a child with a net in midswing.  The work involves some structural challenges, but it is my hope that I will be able to capture the moment in “branches” and provide a reminder to visitors all year long of this most beautiful of summer activities.

Drew Crowley, Will Lewis, Connor Long, Garrott McClintock: Mobiles of the Pines
Our group has received inspiration for our project through the art of Andy Goldsworthy and Alexander Calder. We seek to synthesize these two artist's work by taking our materials from nature and creating with them balanced forms that interact with the space in which they exist.
 
Karen (KB) Bailey: The Root of It All – A Kinetic Expression
I love the root flare (more commonly called the trunk) of a tree.  Somehow I belong to them. I collect them like others collect stones and coins.   The root flare is the crossroads – the junction between ground and sky – the very hub of the life that creates the tree.  It’s the first expression of form pushed forth by the germinating seed and usually the last of the form to decompose. Every root flare can tell a thousand stories when you know how to listen.
I thought this spot in the garden with so many paths coming together was the perfect crossroads for this expression.
KB (Karen Bailey) has been the garden steward at Boxerwood for 25 years. She is a certified arborist and designs landscapes.  Having received her first lessons from Boxerwood’s original gardener, Dr. Munger, KB has truly learned to dance in and with these kinetic forms that he set in motion.

Leah Green: PoeTree
I take a lot of hope from the idea that what is “human” is not so separate from what is “natural”—and that, in reconciling these two, we might create a lasting relationship among living things.

In writing poetry I feel able to explore the human relationship with the rest of the natural world in a way that can perhaps begin to get at the complexity of that relationship through specifics.  I focus my writing on the concrete specifics of a life, my human life, in relationship to nature.  It is only by means of these concrete specifics that I am able to gain access to the abstract emotions, ideas and experiences that make up my relationship with the rest of the natural world.

Josh Ronnenburg: Plastic People Planters

Dancers:  Agharese Emokpae, Robert Vestal, Jennifer Ritter -- W&L Students