Sunflowers turn their heads during a day’s cycle to bask in the light. Lily pads serve as a resting place for dragonflies, frogs and insects. As the only surviving species of a group of trees that existed before dinosaurs roamed the earth, today’s ginkgo trees are considered living fossils.
These scientific facts and others, some equally esoteric, will provide the inspiration behind the Central Florida Watercolor Society’s exhibition The Not-So-Secret Life of Plants, which is slated to run from June 28 to September 1 at Orlando Science Center.
The exhibition will be staged in OSC’s “Fusion: A STEAM Gallery,” which shows that art and design aren’t removed from science—they’re essential complements. Traveling exhibitions are featured throughout the year at the gallery with an emphasis on local artists.
First organized as the Aquamedia Society in 1998 by local artist Ken Austin, the Central Florida Watercolor Society is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting interest and participation in the art of watercolor. Membership has grown to 125 noteworthy professionals and art enthusiasts who hail from Central Florida.
Thanks to Fusion’s ongoing mission to promote art and design as essential complements to the sciences, this summer’s exhibition is the latest installment of a partnership between the watercolor society and OSC. The two organizations had partnered on OSC’s Pompei: The Immortal City in 2020 and Nature’s Wonder: The Curious and Beautiful World of Pollinators in 2022.
This time around, the artists were charged with painting their impressions of a scientific fact about a plant. They rose to the challenge with roughly 40 images that illustrate everything from “thigmomorphogenesis” (the phenomenon by which plants alter their growth because of mechanical stimuli) to cancer-fighting veggies to insect-digesting pitcher plants.
“Art helps illustrate, communicate and build understanding of our world, and how it has evolved and adapted to change,” says Ann Worrall, the watercolor society’s publicity chair. “This applies to social and cultural issues, ancient civilizations, scientific understanding, wonders of nature and much more.”
The Not-So-Secret Life of Plants will supplement Fusion: A STEAM Gallery’s permanent pieces, which include an interactive, visual theremin (an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer) by Ginger Leigh. There’s also a sculpture on which motion sensors detect the presence of viewers and change colors and movements accordingly by Ryan Buyssens.
On a more poignant note, the gallery includes Christy McCutchen’s tribute to victims and survivors of the Pulse tragedy that incorporates colorful paper hearts that were folded by visitors then hung in the bridge between the museum and its parking garage after the nightclub shooting in 2016.
Orlando Science Center is located at 777 East Princeton Street, Orlando, in Loch Haven Cultural Park. For more information, visit osc.org/visit/exhibits/fusion-gallery.
