Pink Lady Slippers

On my 13th birthday, my parents surprised me with an American Flyer bicycle. And over the last three weeks, the memory of one adventure on the bike has inspired my work in the studio. 

On a sunny June day at the start of summer, I was peddling my bike a few miles from home. As I was riding along a grove of pine trees I noticed a stand of unusual pink flowers.  A new discovery. 

I got off the bike and picked 4 or 5 flowers and can remember how excited I was to bring them home for my mom. 

To this day I remember mom saying in a loving voice, “Oh Paul, these flowers are very rare and called Pink Lady Slipper Orchids, you’re not supposed to pick them.” My mom’s concern was a surprise to me because the notion that certain flowers in the forest were not supposed to be picked puzzled me.  

That memory stayed dormant for more than half a century, until last month, when I received a conference call from the curator Charlotte P. Kasic and executive director Dr. Jutta Page of the Barry Art Museum in Norfolk, Virginia. They were familiar with my work and told me that the museum was planning to mount an exhibition centered on the orchid culture.  They asked if they could see images of my glass orchid designs to be considered for the exhibition in the spring of 2021.  

When I shared the memory of my mother and the lady slippers, they both enjoyed the story. That conversation motivated me to begin experimenting on a special design dedicated to my mother, symbolized by a cluster of Pink Lady’s Slipper orchids. 

With all my experimenting and obsession with the idea, the technical challenges slowly gave way to the beauty of a glass sculpted cluster of Pink lady slipper orchids suspended in a 4-inch solid glass orb.  It’s been an emotional challenge to give a visual reference to the memory of a 13-year old boy’s fascination with native flowers.

The same passion to share beauty with someone I loved as a child is still alive today for this 77-year-old man who quietly works in his studio. 

Note: 

... In 1935 Massachusetts passed law 116A “no person shall pull up or dig up the plant of a wild azalea, wild orchid or cardinal flower.” Subject to a $5 fine