Sharon Haines said, “The bounty of nature is my art form.  My background in art and my love of gardening started my career in natural materials.  I love being outdoors, working hard in my gardens and enjoying the colors, shapes, textures and smells of nature.  These become the paints and raw materials that form my artistic and sculptural designs.  I have also worked with other forms of 2-D and 3-D art through the years and have been doing “art” all my life but when I started working with the things from my gardens, I found my niche”

As a professional artist, Sharon lives with her husband on a 225-acre farm in Park City, Kentucky where she raises flowers, herbs and vegetables and her husband raises cattle. Born and raised in Michigan, Sharon is a former art teacher who works with natural, dried and preserved botanicals creating beautifully designed arrangements, wreaths, swags and other creations. Her love of gardening and the abundance of the harvest helped her decide to concentrate on designing in this area.

Years ago when she was teaching art in Michigan, their County Extension Agent asked her to lead a workshop making wreaths out of natural materials found in the fields and by the roadsides.  He suggested cornhusk flowers also.  She said that at this point, she had been growing large vegetable gardens and some everlastings but Sharon had never put anything together in a composition, let alone teach how to do it.  This was a real challenge for her.  She said, “I gathered lots of weeds, formed some wreaths from wild grapevines, experimented with making flowers out of husks and eventually was able to present the workshop”.  Her studio is in the basement.  She has a great workbench with lights overhead and a climate controlled environment with air conditioning and heat!  In the first fifteen years, a big fan in the summer and a space heater in the winter were what she used.  Most of the rest of the basement is filled with shelves that hold all the boxes of dried/preserved materials that she uses.  Her plant stand is there and doubles as storage the rest of the year.  Her husband, Kenny gets one section for his tools and farm things.

She forgot about this particular art form until she and her husband bought their farm.  She started with the vegetables and fruits and a few flowers just to brighten up the space.  Their United Methodist Women’s group was planning a Christmas bazaar and Sharon volunteered to make some grapevine wreaths.  Once again she tackled the cornhusk flower thing and managed to put together some pieces.  “This was the beginning…I think my sister-in-law bought the only wreath I sold and she kept it through all these years.  She had asked me to do a presentation at the Louisville Women’s Club a few years ago and gave me the “original” wreath to use in the program…kind of like from whence she came”.

“I was a new mom and a former teacher who couldn’t find a job in Kentucky.  I got my Kentucky certification and did some substitute teaching for a few years.  In between, I started going to little, local craft shows, selling some of my 2-D work and yes, my wreaths and centerpieces with cornhusk flowers.  I also taught myself how to make cornhusk figures.  I realized that as I did more craft shows, I needed to decide what medium to concentrate on so I could get into better shows.  The gardens were my inspiration and I chose to go with the naturals”.

Originally, she grew just the common everlastings:  strawflowers, statice, baby’s breath, amaranth etc.  Then came the seed catalogs!  Every winter she would pour through every one of them, looking for things that she could grow that could be dried or preserved.  She tried all sorts of things and most of the herbs in the books and started to see everything growing in a different light…How would this plant dry?  Would it lose its color?  Could this be the center of a cornhusk flower?  Should I air-dry, put it in a food dehydrator, treat it with glycerin?  With these questions in mind her gardens grew.  “I also realized that it was almost impossible to direct sow the little seeds and expect to be able to find them when they came up in the weeds.  Germination was also very poor doing it this way.  So, I got some fluorescent lights and some containers and began growing seedlings under lights in my basement.  This worked great!  My husband built a plant growing station for me out of 2 X 4’s.  It has 5 shelves and can hold 20 flats of seedlings.  Each shelf has two 48” fluorescent shop lights.   Now I could really experiment with seeds.

From the basement, the plants then went into a cold frame that Kenny built.  Things grew so well in the basement that I had to move them outside so I could plant more flats inside.  Late frost was sometimes a problem and we have covered the frame with quilts and put a light bulb in it to save my little babies.

Sharon’s most creative time of the day is in the morning.  People often ask her where she gets her ideas and when they come into her booth at a show, they ask if she made everything?  “I guess they think that I buy it from China, perhaps?  Yes, I absolutely make everything and all pieces are my original designs”, elated Sharon.

Her creativity on some days begins with laying out a container and studying the shapes and colors. Then she walks through her supply boxes, thinking of what will work well with this piece.  Sometimes she uses only a few, dramatic materials to create a strong sculptural piece.  Sometimes she goes for bright, vibrant colors or maybe earthy colors.  She said she loves the different sizes, shapes, colors and textures of all the natural materials she works with, saying that some lend themselves to formal designs, eclectic, starkly modern, oriental, country, earthy and simple.

Because there are only so many materials that she can gather or grow in our part of the world, she also use foliages, botanicals, and any natural materials she can get from all over the world.  Sharon attends the International Gift market in Atlanta, Georgia to seek out suppliers of exotic, preserved and dried materials also.  She said she needs these additional materials to bring a new look and feel to her work and has to keep creating new designs and new combinations.  When she puts together a successful combination of old and new materials she feels the energy and beauty coming from the design.  The plant materials are her palette. The wreaths, containers, baskets and pieces of found objects are her canvases.  She paints a landscape with flowers or makes a sculpture with plants.

Sharon has become a one-woman show with the help of her husband. Together, they raise over an acre of gardens, starting with seeds and her own plants, right up to harvesting and drying. She said she does it all and that she does not believe in copying someone else’s design.  “I might be inspired by someone’s style, but the piece will be my own design”.  She also assists artists with product evaluation and development and business planning.

Sharon said that all of her pieces are made from natural materials that are dried or preserved.  They include grains, grasses, pods, cones, herbs, everlastings, flowers, fruits, vegetables, exotic materials and wild things from the roadside, starting with seeds and her own plants, right up to harvesting, drying and preserving.  “I start seedlings in flats under fluorescent tubes in the basement in early spring.  As they grow, I move them to the cold frame and later into one of my three gardens. Harvesting begins in March with the cutting of my pussy willow and ends in late fall when I bring in the last of my now, dried-on-the-plant, okra and the gourds.  My methods of preservation include air-drying, glycerin treatment of the fresh materials, dyeing, bleaching and using a food dehydrator”, stated Mrs. Haines.

Then when the growing and gathering of her raw materials has been done she begins the process of creating her three-dimensional sculptures.  She stated, “With my imagination and full use of all elements of art and principles of design, my natural sculptural pieces are born.  They look real because they are real, just dried or preserved.  The colors of nature are my palette and my love of the outdoors gives the works the sense of inviting the viewer into the place of peace and beauty.  Somewhere in their past there is a flower, a garden, a scent, a memory or a wish that becomes their experience and my artistic fulfillment.  

“Everything I do, I do with a creative energy.  I visualize something a certain way and create the way to accomplish it.  It is something I have to do…I don’t just put a bowl of fruit on the table, I have to think about the relationship of the bowl with the things around it and place it so that it fits into the design of the whole setting.  In my personal life, I like simple, clean lines and shapes, earth tones, lots of textures…all relating to each other and to the whole”, stated Mrs. Haines.

Sharon Haines has most recently shown in the Kentucky Crafted:  the Market, Louisville,  Governor’s Derby Breakfast, Frankfort,  Kentucky Guild of Artist’s and Craftsmen, Berea, KY and Bowling Green, KY, St. James Court Art Fair, Louisville, KY, Woodland Art Fair, Lexington, KY, Art in Speed Park, Sellersburg, IN, Ohio Designers Craftsmen Winterfair, Columbus, OH, Country Living Fair, Columbus, OH and Stone Mountain, GA, Gatlinburg Fine Arts Festival, Gatlinburg, TN, Cherokee Triangle Art Fair, Louisville, KY, Madison Chautauqua, Madison, IN,  Cedarhurst Craft Fair, Mt. Vernon, IL, Francisco’s Farm, Midway, KY, Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill, KY, Talbot Street, Indianapolis, IN.  Sharon Haines has received numerous booth design awards, Merit Award, Mixed Media and Design Award for 3-D Mixed Media.   

She is a Lifetime Honorary Juried member of the Kentucky Craft Marketing Program, Mentor, Advisory Committee, Platinum 10; Kentucky Guild of Artists and Craftsmen and was the vice president, chair of standards committee in 2002 and from 2003-2004 the President, Board of Directors.  She is also a member of the Louisville Artisans Guild.

She has a degree at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan with a BS degree in 1970; Home Economics/Art Secondary Teaching Certificate, 7-12, Graduate work, Art Michigan State University, Weaving classes; Western Kentucky University, Graduate work for Rank II Teaching Certificate in 1982.

In the future she said that when she gets to a point where she can retire from doing shows that she wants to get back to painting and especially working in pastels.

You can see more information about Sharon Haines on the following sites:  http://artscouncil.ky.gov/KPAN/kpan_consultants.htm   http://www.kyguild.org/artists/haines/haines.html and you can contact her at:  kshaines@scrtc.com or by phone at:  270-749-8862

Sharon Haines sums it up with, “Did I say that I love to garden?  Working with my plants, watching them grow, watching them not grow, harvesting, drying, preserving.  I even like the hard work…the hoe and the tiller.  Our soil is rocky clay and many wonder how anything can grow!  Gardening is my mental and physical therapy…exercise, digging and hoeing out my frustrations, the joy of seeing something beautiful, the feeling of accomplishment looking back to see weed-free rows…the peace I find being in nature…seeing what beauty and wonders God has created”.

About the author: Ronnie Jaggers is a seasoned sculptor, fine artist and master crafter. Her work can be seen on ChiseledFeaturesStudio.webs.com. She reminds other artists “Trust the beauty of your art, for if you see the beauty, others will too.” To be considered for the featured artist call Ronnie at 791-3505 or email ChiseledFeaturesStudio@yahoo.com