Glass in Flight at Reiman Gardens

There is a special exhibition this year at Reiman Gardens in Ames, IA. Glass in Flight consists of 19 sculptures by Alex Heveri and will remain on display until October 8, 2023. Heveri, a sculpture artist from Arizona, has been working with steel and Dalle de Verre glass for over 25 years. "Dalle de Verre" is French, meaning "glass slab." It is a medium similar to stained glass, but the key difference is the thickness of the glass. Stained glass is usually thin, the same thickness as a window pane, while Dalle de Verre is made from thick chunks which produces deeper colors in the art. You can easily see (both in person and in photos) that the edges of the glass in Heveri's series have been chipped - this technique increases the refraction of light through the sculptures.

Yay, flowers!

This was my first trip to Reiman Gardens, and it would have been a wholly delightful experience had we not been under a heat advisory that day! Regardless, our family had a wonderful, albeit sweaty, time there. 

The first stop was, of course, the butterfly wing. My girls thought it was a magical place, and couldn't believe how many butterflies were there! The butterfly exhibit has hundreds of butterflies, from 80 different species! I'll admit I've never seen butterflies before that actually looked happy as they flew in and out of the foliage! However, these were not the butterflies that I was looking for.

As soon as we stepped out of the building, we were greeted by blistering heat - I mean, sculptures within the landscape. To my pleasant surprise, not all of the sculptures in the Gardens were a part of Heveri's Glass in Flight! 

Expand by Tom Reife. Stainless steel, 2016

This stainless steel sculpture by Tom Riefe reminds me of a burst of flames! But the geometric and symmetrical design also reflects patterns found in nature, which is appropriate for the Gardens.

Blue Dasher by Alex Heveri

I didn’t take photos of every single piece Heveri has at the Gardens, as ideally you dear readers will get the chance to see them yourselves! The first one I photographed is “Blue Dasher,” a beautiful royal blue dragonfly with clear wingtips. I love that the stand is also a part of the art, resembling a segmented reed or bamboo.

Continuing along the path, we came to a drool-worthy herb garden (pun fully intended.) It’s been a dream of mine to have a small herb garden, and while I did keep an oregano plant alive in a pot for three years, the most I ever do with herb plants is lovingly smell them a few times a week (shout out to Jon, who does 99.99% of the cooking in our home.) Maybe someday, because this herb garden at Reiman was beautiful, aromatic, and huge!

 
Pink Amethyst by Alex Heveri

Past the herb garden, we found twin “Pink Amethyst” butterflies. The butterflies were unique among the Glass in Flight sculptures in that their wings weren’t made from glass mosaics but huge slabs of stone! I knew amethyst came in a whole rainbow-range of colors, but according to the plaque for these two sculptures, there are no pink butterflies! How fascinating!

If I had a large enough yard, I wouldn't mind having a couple of these myself.

We found multiple pieces like this embedded in the foliage. They didn’t have informational plaques, so I don’t know who to give credit to. Within each larger “frame” were a group of smaller frames with a variety of dried leaves pressed and preserved between panes of glass. An odd little display, but worthy of mention regardless.

 
Tailed Jay by Alex Heveri

The next three pieces were my favorites – this one, “Tailed Jay,” is a lovely emerald-colored butterfly. It has a twisting metal base, with multiple swirling lines and small colorful glass accents. I took a picture from underneath to really express how fun this one is. It can’t be easy to create the flight of a butterfly in metal, but Heveri found a way.

 

More Bees Please! by Alex Heveri

This lovely archway is my other favorite of Heveri’s sculptures in the Glass in Flight series! While I personally have an irrational fear of stinging insects, I know how essential they are to our ecosystems – and how endangered they are, too! This rust-colored arc is composed of many hexagons; some open, some filled with weathered metal, and others filled with amber-colored glass. 3-Dimensional bees with transparent yellow bodies are swarmed all over the archway. A fitting tribute to honeycomb!

 

By Dale Lewis

Another beautiful piece of art, the third favorite of mine, is a small cherry (I think they are supposed to be cherries, at least) tree made of silverware. The name at the base says “Dale Lewis,” but that’s all I know about it. The sculptor used spoons for leaves, and wrapped fork tines around to hold the “berries.”

Yellow Stag Beetle by Alex Heveri

Heveri’s sculptures aren’t limited to just dragonflies and butterflies; this one is a Yellow Stag Beetle! It’s found in the middle of a feast of mulch and branches, which is exactly what real yellow stag beetles eat!

 
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail by Alex Heveri

At the far end, right next to the Gardens’ iconic hexagonal wood tower, is the colorful Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. Bright yellow, blue, and orange stand out next to the clear and stark black stripes. An excellent example of dalle de verre, it’s well worth the trek back to see.

It pains me to stop here without mentioning so many, many other cool artistic features and artworks we saw at the Reiman Gardens that day; from trained-into-arches trees, farm animals made of peat with flowers for bodies, a giant gnome, to vine-like handrails and so much more! These gardens in Ames were absolutely worth the sweat-soaked clothes I had at the end of our trip. I’d really like to come back in other seasons to see the different displays.

Heveri’s Glass in Flight exhibition will be on display until October 8^th, 2023. I hope you take the time to see it before it leaves Ames! To learn more about what’s going on at Reiman Gardens, you can find them on Facebook plus their website www.ReimanGardens.com is packed full of information.

What a dork!

Artist Interview: Kathryn Roe, Wool 'n' Work

When I started this blog in March 2022, I had two goals: first, I wanted to write about art (duh); and second, I wanted to write about other, mostly local artists. After graduating from college, I was amazed to discover that Iowa has such a variety of artists! I’ve had an even deeper realization of this since joining a handful of Iowa artisan groups on social media. One of the artists I’ve met that way is Kathryn Roe, a fiber artist from Oskaloosa, IA.

Roe’s artwork isn’t exclusively in the fiber medium, though. When she was in college at Northern Illinois University, she created drawings in charcoal and colored pencil, or with ink on monoprints. She also enjoyed weaving and jewelry making, despite the two being considered more craft than art. “By the time I graduated with my first degree, I had been married, had a child, and was divorced and a single mother,” Roe said.  “Doing any art that took up much space or equipment became something to think about for the future while I tried to make a living for the two of us.”

Roe considers herself lucky to have such a large home studio for her artwork now.

During this time, Roe approached several galleries. “Every single one of them praised my work, but none of them would show my work.  Why?  Remember this is almost fifty years ago, and the world was a very, very different place.  The reason I was given over and over again was that they didn’t carry women’s work because it didn’t sell.  Some said my work looked too much like a woman did it.  Some said they’d carry my work if I only used my initials to sign it.”

An Artist's Journey:  28"x28", needle-felted wool on felted wool, applique, thread-sketching, embroidery.

Detail of above

“After mulling it over, I decided to not change how I sign my work.” Interestingly enough, today Roe does sign her art with her initials!

Throughout the years, she continued to sew, embroider, and draw, although she admits that didn’t consistently practice creating art. “About six or seven years ago, my sister introduced me to felted wool. (Not wool felt.) I started working with it and started to combine the principles of fine art with the skills my grandmother and mother taught me and needle-felting.” Her sister also taught her a technique of making hexagons that uses circles of fabric folded in a particular way. “The smallest hexes I make start with a circle the size of a dime.”

Red Tulips, wool painting (needle-felted wool on felted wool) 19.5"x14.5"

Some of the artwork Roe creates is strictly needle-felted. Needle-felting is a technique that uses a barbed needle to sculpt 2D or 3D designs out of wool. “For example, the red tulips are completely needle-felted. That is considered a “wool painting”.” Other examples of Roe’s work combine needle-felted wool with felted wool, applique, embroidery, and “thread sketching”. Thread sketching is a technique of sewing that uses a sewing machine like a pencil, creating lines that look like drawings out of thread.  

Winter: Mahaska County,  8"x21" needle-felted wool on felted wool, thread-sketching

Detail of above

“I made a conscious decision to use what is often considered “women’s work” in my art several years ago,” explained Roe. “I purchase the wool roving I use, as well as the threads, but the majority of the materials I use are “recycled”.  I find wool, cotton, and silk fabrics I use in thrift stores… I attempt to combine the traditional needle arts, “women’s work”, in new ways to create contemporary art.”

Roe is currently working on two pieces, one is an abstract design and the other is a landscape. She has a few favorite subjects for her work, she said. “I like to “paint” flowers, especially sunflowers. I also like to travel the back roads in Iowa to find small rural scenes, bits of the rural Iowa that seem to be disappearing. I also do abstract work that combines all of the techniques.  An example is “Embellishing the Truth”.  Sometimes I do fun pieces like “What Cats Dream”.”

What Cats Dream,  24"x24" needle-felted wool on felted wool, applique, embroidery

Detail of above

I asked Roe if she has a favorite piece of her own work. “Wow.  That one is tough!  I guess I would narrow it down to An Artist’s Journey and What Cats Dream.”

She titles her artwork in a very logical way: “I title the flowers by the type of flower and a number, like Sunflower VI.  The rural scenes I title by the county in which I took the photo from which I did the painting. The abstract pieces are titled according to the story I am telling.” Her piece, An Artist’s Journey is auto-biographical, and depicts her own story. It earned a Blue Ribbon in an Iowa Artists online show a few years ago.

Roe’s favorite tools!

I always ask two extremely important questions: What is your favorite tool for making art? “This pic shows my wrinkly, spotty hand holding a "pen" that holds a felting needle.  I prefer this mundane plastic pen holder to some of the other kinds.  A felting needle is a bit difficult to hold on its own. In back of that, is my sewing machine.”

And the second: What’s an issue or stumbling block you’ve encountered? “I have already described the sexism I encountered. Another issue has been dealing with being an abuse survivor and coping with depression and anxiety,” Roe admitted. “I wonder sometimes if that is why I am so attracted to bright colors emerging from a dark background.”

Embellishing the Truth:  10"x35"; needle-felted wool on felted wool, applique, thread sketching, hand embroidery

Detail of above

“I guess another issue is that the techniques I use are not well understood.” Roe recalls sitting next to a woman once at a regional show. “At some point, she turned to me, and very kindly said that I really didn’t belong “here” and that I needed to look for a group of people who do crafts or quilting. I know she meant well and was saying that from the bottom of her heart.  However, it illustrates some of the confusion people have about my work.” Alright, I’ve already written one post about how illustration is a legit art form – keep your eyes peeled next year for an RSAS blog post defending quilting as REAL art, too.

Detail of one of Roe's current works in progress

Any advice for artists just starting out? “If you want to be an artist, do something art every day.  It could be a little sketch or something that will take days to finish, but you have to practice your art daily.  Don’t wait for a lightning bolt of inspiration to strike!” Excellent advice! I wholeheartedly believe that improvement comes from putting in the time and practice.

To see more of Roe’s artwork, follow her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/wool.n.work/.