The flowers of summer will bloom all year long at Friends & Company, 11 Boston Post Road, Madison, CT. Found object metal sculptor, Stuart Alan Lerner recently installed a garden of whimsical flowers aside the outdoor dining deck. Repurposing waffle irons as seed heads and bicycle chains as stems for jello mold buds, Lerner re-envisioned a sculpture garden, making it a garden of sculptures. Diners are delighted and so are owners Brian Gondek and Greg Benson. They say the giant flowers intrigue customers of all ages "especially the kids who try to figure out the original use for each object"
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| Sculptor Stuart Lerner with new sculpture entitled "Friends' Flowers" |
Just as a found object reveals itself to the sculptor, the artist was also "found" by Brian Gondek. Last fall Lerner was dining at the restaurant with a friend who is also an artist. Gondek stopped by to talk with Lerner's friend and during the course of conversation about art, expressed his wish for outdoor sculptures. Lerner exclaimed "That's what I do!" Throughout the winter, as gardeners were planning gardens with seed catalogs, Lerner was sorting, collecting and imagining new uses for discarded metal. Stating that "if it doesn't make me laugh, I don't do it" Lerner constructed his flowers from parts previously used for other purposes.
Friends & Company has long exhibited artworks by local artists in the dining room and bar. The owners have found that celebrating the art community benefits their business. Gondek states that " changing the artists inside increases the frequency of customers coming in" Now with colanders blooming atop fence posts and rakes becoming grass instead of gathering it, Friends & Company has art inside AND out. Imagine how much fun it will be to see brilliant flowers growing out of the snow this winter. As Gondek says " It would not be this restaurant without the art".
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| Detail "Friends' Flowers" |
In 1978, Stuart Lerner was working in the textile processing business in Hoboken, NJ when he walked into the maintenance department of the plant and saw two pieces of metal sitting on a work table that looked like shoes. He found two pipes and inserted them into the "shoes" and said "now I have legs". The spirit of an artist was ignited. Within a week he had made his first sculpture, a little robot. A detour out of the Lincoln Tunnel led him past a plumbers supply house and he discovered his first scrap metal yard. Now he scouts yard sales with his grandsons and takes annual buying trips to Massachusetts and upstate New York in search of sculpture materials disguised as junk.
The Lerner Gallery, located at 22 Scotland Avenue, Madison, is open by appointment. 203-779-5363
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