Page 66 - Spring 2021

s| ARTSPEAK
Flower ladies shine
over Watkinsville
By Michael Prochaska
As Watkinsville artist Cindy Jerrell was volunteering to re-paint the city’s welcome signs, she realized that there’s nothing greeting visitors traveling on Barnett Shoals Road.
“I love the art all over Watkinsville,” she said of the sculptures and art boards scattered throughout a city known as the “Artland of Georgia.”
As an avid gardener with a heart for art, Jerrell applied for a fellowship program that would fund her vision for three 10-foot tall flower ladies beside her charming red barn.
The “shelter projects” micro-fellowship is spearheaded by the Wilson Center for Humanities and Arts in partnership with the UGA Graduate School, Athens Area Arts Council, the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and Flagpole magazine.
The topiaries of women with wide skirts represents growth and change. Holding their hands up to the sky in reverence and joy, these folksy figures are crafted the way gardeners build tepees for their runner vines to climb. She planted runner beans at the base, and the vegetation climbed the structures over several months.
Cindy Jerrell and her husband, Quinton Phillips enjoy bringing hope and joy to the people who pass their topiary flower ladies on Barnett Shoals Road.
The work of art, funded in part through a Wilson Center for Humanities and Arts fellowship, was decorated with Christmas lights during the holidays.
The heart of the sunshine flower ladies are birdfeeders and flowers.
Jerrell quotes Victorian art critic John Ruskin, who once said, “Flowers seem intended for the solace of ordinary humanity.” She explains that the garden statues provide joy and hope.
“It’s an allegory that even though you stay in one place, things can grow and change and bloom and nourish,” she said.
This time of year, Jerrell spends hours every day gardening. She quips that she drives herself crazy pulling weeds to find new buds and figuring out where to plant new things.
“I dig a lot of holes,” she said, laughing. “I generally will work until I drop and my fingernails are black and my body is stiff and sore, but I am happy to be outside and crazy optimistic about beauty to come. Mentally I feel like the sun and the earth absorb and dissolve my anxieties, and I am recharged.”
Though her hands are busy, Jerrell spends a lot of time reflecting. She’s been thinking about the many people who have lost a loved one during the pandemic, been laid off from a job or are living alone. She believes that art and nature can offer solace in times of hardship.
“I’ve heard a lot of nice things from pedestrians, bicyclists and even a few motorists,” said Jerrell.
One woman was so fascinated that she commissioned a similar structure for her own house.
Jerrell said she would like to add more sculptures over time and exhibit her work inside the red barn, which she affectionately calls “the wonder barn.”
sMichael Prochaska is editor of OCONEE THE MAGAZINE and The Oconee Enterprise newspaper in Watkinsville, Ga. PAGE 64 | OCONEE THE MAGAZINE | SPRING 2021
Courtesy Cindy Jerrell
Michael Prochaska