ORIGAMI IN THE PARK

Origami:  The Japanese art of folding paper into decorative shapes and figures.  When I first read that Tucson Botanical Gardens was displaying “Origami in the Garden” I envisioned an exhibit of decorative shapes and figures made from paper. 

Tucson Botanical Gardens is located on North Alvernon in the high desert of Tucson, Arizona.  You will find plenty of free parking and an affordable admission charge of $15.   

Entrance to Tucson Botanical Gardens Photo by Tucson Botanical Gardens

As I walked through the gift shop and stepped into the garden area, I was surprised to discover that instead of a paper exhibit, the sculptures were created of metal.

"Painted Ponies"

Created by Santa Fe artists Kevin and Jennifer Box, they pioneered methods of capturing delicate origami details in museum quality metals utilizing lost wax casting and fabrication techniques.

Eighteen origami sculptures were placed throughout the gardens.   The first sculptures you encounter are “Star Unfolding” and “Painted Ponies”.  

 

Other statutes carried names like “Blooming Stars”, “Who Saw Who”, “White Bison”, “Rising Cranes” and “Emerging Peace”.     

Tucson Botanical Gardens consists of seventeen specialty gardens within 5.5 acres.  It was originally the home of Bernice and Rutger Porter, dating back to the 1920s.  The earliest buildings were constructed of adobe brick made on the site. 

The winding walkways are dirt and proved to be fairly dusty.  The majority of the plants are a variety of cactus that are more suitable to the Tucson climate.  There are several fountains throughout the gardens.  Today, the gardens contain many of the original plants from the Porter estate including citrus, roses, privet, sweet olive, pomegranate, Aleppo pine, pyrancantha, iris, chaste-tree, jasmine and other plants of that era.