If your kid is fascinated by bugs, be sure to see David Rogers’ Big Bugs exhibit, opening this month at the Memphis Botanic Garden. These super-sized sculptures capture bugs in all their fantastical glory. The show kicks off with the Big Bugs Family Picnic on opening day, September 17th, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Just how big are these creatures? Come see for yourself!
An artist finds his passion
Sculptor David Rogers first discovered a love of botanic materials in the mid-1980s, when a friend taught him how to make rustic furniture from branches and saplings. He had always built stuff — sailboats, sculptures, cabinets — but this allowed his imagination to run wild, he says, “transforming my perception of what could be conceived and created with natural materials.” Dinosaurs came first but soon morphed into whimsical interpretations of giant grasshoppers, praying mantises, spiders, and ants. Since he worked on such a grand scale, botanic gardens proved the perfect venue for viewing.
But on the opening day of his first show back in 1994, Rogers nervously wondered what the public would think. “The ants had been installed [at the Dallas Arboretum] and people were coming over the hill to look at them. At first they looked, but soon they were picnicking under my sculptures!” he says. “As crude as I thought they were, people were blown away.”
The show was a great success and several more followed. The game changer, however, was Disney World. Katy Moss, the director of Disney World’s Horticulture and Environmental Initiatives, incorporated Rogers’ bug art into Epcot’s Flower and Garden Festival and their five-year collaboration helped diversify and refine his work. Today, David Rogers has two sets of giant bugs (40 in all) that show at arboretums around the country. His installations help educate the public about conservation and the important role insects play in the natural world.
Crafting giants
Of course, such creative inspiration doesn’t happen overnight. For example, the ants (10 feet tall and 25 feet in length) are crafted from willow saplings that Rogers travels to Virginia to collect. He harvests the willow from ditches and cures the branches before bending them over wooden frames to create the ant’s head and body. He also uses black locust, red cedar, and black walnut, hardwoods he finds near his home on Long Island. Once completed, each bug is varnished, suggesting its natural colors.
Rogers installs each show himself and will be on-hand at MBG for the opening where he looks forward to thanking members and donors for their support. “I never imagined I’d spend 25 years doing this,” says Rogers. “It’s been an amazing experience.”
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Memphis Botanic Garden’s education programs will also center on bugs this fall, teaching children and adults fascinating facts about the insect world. For those who might view bugs as icky or scary, director of education Gina Harris says they look forward to sharing “the amazing role insects play and how important and fascinating they are. It will be neat to see kids’ views change.”