Arboretum
Barbara Siegel

GALLERY I

November 2 - November 26, 2011

Opening Reception: Thursday, November 3, 2011, 6-9 pm

This biographical mixed-media installation is inspired by the life’s work of horticulturalist, Dr. Sidney Waxman (1923-2005). My earlier work has included individuals as different from one another as Coney Island sideshow performer Melvin Burkhardt and Harvard mineralogist Clifford Frondel. Each of my subjects has faced profound life challenges with determination, passion, and creative ingenuity. My work re-examines and pays tribute to their complexity. Each project is a journey of discovery. ARBORETUM, my current exhibition, reflects on Waxman’s work beginning shortly after World War II at his research conifer nursery at the University of Connecticut at Storrs, where he developed techniques of using seeds from the pine cones in witches brooms, anomalous often large and dense masses of twigs growing on an otherwise normal tree. With these, Waxman propagated and named over forty varieties of dwarf conifers, including such descriptive examples as “shaggy dog,” “sea urchin,” and “golden candles.” After reading his obituary in the NY Times, my research started at the NY Botanical Gardens where in 2004 the Sidney Waxman plant collection of dwarf conifers had been dedicated. In 2011 escorted by several of Waxman’s colleagues from the University of Connecticut, I visited his research conifer nursery there and spent a memorable afternoon with his wife, Florence.

View the full Press Release here.