Pearl Fryar's Topiary Sculptures: The Evolving Art of Garden Sculpting

Amongst our travels, we've yet to find more than a handful of noteworthy "living garden" sculptures as vibrant and as rich as the ones made by Pearl Fryar. A native to the South Carolina, Fryar combines the fine art of sculpture with his love and passion for horticulture and life. What's more astounding about Fryar's serene garden is that much of the actual "art" came from little seedlings that were rescued from piles that were disposed of by others around the land. This act of giving a future to these plants and creating in them an artistic splendor makes Fryar a a true "green" artist in our books. With all the environmental movements going around lately, let's take a lesson from this pioneering artist turned horticulturist and work green when creating our wonderful art concepts.

Today, the Pearl Fryar Topiary garden has over 300 individual plants that mostly showcase this man's fervor for garden sculpting. The 2006 documentary called "A Man Named Pearl" exhibits his extraordinary journey into the field of re-styling nature to give it a fighting chance against the sometimes rough hand of society. Bothe the LA Times and the Wallstreet Journal have past encounters with Pearl, and neither can look back on him without simply remembering the majesty of his creations.


Fryar's web-home, can show you just how powerful one man's dynamic character can be. here's a screenshot showcasing Pearl himself, trimming away at one of his "living" sculptures. (Photo Credits go to www.pearlfryar.com) Keep being green everyone!

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Masahiko Kimura and Bonsai as Living Sculpture

The term Living Sculpture can be applied to a number of categories such as Land Art, Environmental Art, and Bonsai. Today, we look into the life of the "Magical Technician of Kindai Shuppan"; Masahiko Kimura. Bonsai art is no easy task, people have to intensively twist and coil wires into young plants to inhibit or shape their growth, at the same time leaves and roots have to be trimmed for the tree to grow into miniaturized proportions. At the early age of 15, Kimura became the apprentice of bonsai master Motosuke Hamano of Toju-en Bonsai Garden. His great skill in conceptualizing the growth pattern of trees became his catalyst into the bonsai society's greatest. He was also able to swiftly move past critiques who said his works were widely controversial at first.

In his early years though,  Kimura did not have the entire support of the Japanese Bonsai community because he desired unconventional forms for his art. His very first workshop was at the 1987 Golden State Federation Bonsai Convention in Anaheim, California. He has been giving workshops on Bonsai ever since, and has grown in popularity over the international art scene. Most of the trees he designed were Juniperu Chinensis, but he expanded his trade to encompass different kinds of local and foreign trees over the span of his long career. Kimura had won many awards for his bonsai sculptures, such as the Prime Minister's Award four times (4 years), and the Minister of Education Award in 1999. He was also the teacher of popularized bonsai artist; Marco Invernizzi.

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