Rochelle Wolberg and Sean Kenney with Lady Di Vine. PHOTO BY AMY SAVILLE

Top level donors to McKee Botanical Garden were invited to bring their little ones to a reception to preview Sean Kenney’s Nature POP exhibition, which features more than 40 nature-inspired sculptures made from some 800,000 LEGO Bricks, on display through May 4.

As a cold, misty rain thwarted plans to view the exhibit in the garden that evening, everyone gathered in the Hall of Giants to chat with Kenney, have caricatures drawn by Nef Melendez, and enjoy cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, cotton candy and cupcakes.

In her introduction of Kenney, Rochelle Wolberg, McKee executive director, explained that his first exhibition in 2014 came just as discussions to build their Children’s Garden were underway.

“Like Sean’s exhibits, this garden and the Children’s Garden really bring out the joyful child in all of us,” said Wolberg, noting that Kenney’s 2020 exhibit coincided with the opening of the Children’s Garden.

“So when we thought about how to celebrate our newest exhibition, Nature Pop, there was never a question to time it for the fifth anniversary of the Children’s Garden, with the return of this unique, colorful and purposeful new exhibit,” said Wolberg.

Kenney, who said he was excited to return to Vero Beach, spoke a little about his process, commenting that while he had previously created sculptures with lifelike colors, they tended to blend in when placed in a natural setting.

“I also realized that the most common colors that I was using out of my Lego collection were tan and brown and green and gray. And then I thought, that’s not Lego. When you think about Lego, Lego is red and yellow and blue and white. It’s colorful and it’s fun,” said Kenney.

“And so I was really taken with the idea of trying to create nature-themed sculptures, but in this kind of minimalist way that leverages that pop of color that Lego Bricks really have. So that was the seed of the idea for what became Nature Pop, what’s here today.”

As he built, for instance, his hot pink dog and bright red lion, their shapes could be seen in a unique way.

“I thought, well that’s kind of neat, actually. I can do different kinds of things with color, with Lego, and treat these sculptures as if they’re canvases. And so I started exploring all kinds of different techniques and different ways of applying color to a Lego shape in ways that I never really thought of before,” said Kenney.

To experiment and play with colors, he made small prototype sculptures, such as the 20 bunnies that are scattered about the garden.

“I could actually sort of play with it in a way that felt more like drawing. I could make a bunny, and then a day later have a brand-new idea for a whole new sculpture. So the process of creation became part of what eventually is out here in the garden today, which is really exciting,” he said.

“All the sculptures that are here took about 5,000 hours to build, which is about two and a half years of full-time work. So you spend a lot of time planning them and designing what you’re going to make and then actually physically putting it all together.”

Kenney says he discovered that he could tell stories using color, such as the blue polar bear whose stripes mimic the strata of a polar ice cap, and the extinct Dodo bird with the baby it will never have, whose sunset colors represent its demise.

“It feels so invigorating and so exciting to be able to just play with it and have fun and explore. So as you wander around the gardens here, every time you turn a corner, you’ll see some cool new visual that hopefully you weren’t even expecting.”

For more information, visit McKeeGarden.org.

Photos by Amy Saville