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.
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.
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.
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!
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 8th, 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!
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