Some of the most stunning plants these days at the Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens are not alive.
In “Bringing Reverence to Nature: An Exploration of Botanicals in Paper,” Lea Gray has produced about 20 creations that capture real plants, especially succulents, in card stock and Italian crepe paper. The artworks — some of them hung on the wall and others in terrariums or planters on pedestals — are so lifelike that visitors to the Conservatory’s Cardinal Health Gallery frequently ask, “Are they real?”
Gray, 39, a fine arts graduate of Columbus College of Art & Design, is a native of Sidney, Ohio, where her mother and her grandmother instilled in her a love of plants. In her Worthington apartment, which is also her studio, she has nearly 50 live plants along with her created ones.
“When you go into my home, you wonder what is fake and what is real,” she said.
With her artwork, she said, she tries “to emulate exactly what’s in nature.”
With help from several assistants, Gray cuts the paper for her plants largely by machine, then assembles the pieces into the planters or onto a square or rectangular base before hanging the work on the wall. She finishes the assemblages by spraying the paper plants with transparent paint and even dry shampoo to enhance or change the colors.
In the wall-hung triptych “Agave Collection,” varieties of the species in shades of blue and green are grouped together and surrounded by thick wooden frames that resemble garden borders.
“Aeonium and Purple Pearl Echeveria” groups those plants tightly together in a bowl, with dangling tendrils.
“Cascading Black Pine Bonsai” is a small, graceful tree with machine-cut fringe leaves, a resin-based trunk, driftwood tree limbs and a base of black sand as the ground.
“Botanical Preservation Collection” is a large terrarium filled with a variety of succulents and other plants.
Gray said she came to her art form from origami.
“I was getting bored with origami and wanted something more expressive,” she said. “Someone asked me if I could make flowers for her mother for Mother’s Day. That was nine years ago.”
Her art and her business took off, and she sees no end.
“The paper flower world is huge, but strangely kind of underground. But I don’t know anyone else who makes succulents like I do," Gray said.
“I see myself doing this for the rest of my life. The more I do it, the better I get. And there’s a never-ending supply of plants that I haven’t made yet.”
“Bringing Reverence to Nature: An Exploration of Botanicals in Paper” continues through May 31 at Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, 1777 E. Broad St. Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Timed tickets are required. General admission: $19, or $16 for senior citizens, $12 for ages 3 to 12, free for age 2 and younger; $3 tickets available to participants in SNAP, EBT, WIC or Medicaid. Call 614-715-8000 or visit fpconservatory.org.
Lea Gray will instruct paper garden-making classes on April 24, May 8 and May 22. For more information, visit fpconservatory.org.