The six new fairy houses at Lake Katherine Nature Center and Botanic Gardens are inviting enough that kids, and even some adults, want to crawl inside, even though they would never fit.
The houses are interspersed throughout the Children’s Forest on the north side of the preserve’s namesake lake and are fittingly made from materials found in nature. They were created by the Palos Heights Public Arts Commission, an artistic bunch who periodically display their exhibits at the nature preserve and throughout the city. Several of the commissioners’ family members also helped.
“My granddaughters’ comment after looking at the two we created, with a squeal in their voices, was, ‘Oh, I just want to get inside and play,” said Lynda Schiappa, the commissioner who came up with the project after seeing a similar exhibit at The Botanic Garden at Historic Barns Park in Traverse City, Michigan.
Schiappa created two of the larger homes in this display with help from her daughter, Cortney Adams, and Adams’ two daughters, who gathered materials for the homes, including part of a tree stump that was in her yard.
Schiappa was recovering from hip surgery when she and her daughter and granddaughters made the homes.
“One thing led to another and we were creating,” said Schiappa, an artist who works in watercolors.
“She (Cortney) did all the construction of both … at Lake Katherine. “In short, it was a collaboration of inspiration and creativity, which would not have happened without her.”
At the suggestion of commission member Tara Oosterbaan, the children’s book “The Fairy Friend,” by Sue Fliess, guides the exhibit, and some of its pages are displayed along the forest path.
It’s also a way to creatively present sustainable housing concepts, albeit in a fantasy landscape.
“I like it because of the natural materials — grasses, rocks and wood chips, no plastic or glass,” said Commissioner Sue De Koker.
The positioning of the exhibit also encourages viewers to slow down and soak in the landscape.
“The object is you can’t run through here, you have to keep your eyes peeled,” De Koker said, using garden shears to snip some unruly wild grass away from one of the homes.
The commission had to get approval for the exhibit from the city and Gareth Blakesley, director and chief naturalist of Lake Katherine Nature Center and Botanic Gardens. Blakesley set the parameters, including that it be made only with natural materials. Once the exhibit ends after October, many of the materials will be returned to nature.
That didn’t stop the Public Arts Commission members from having a good time as they assembled their fairy houses.
“We got together, had a few glasses of wine,” said De Koker about their work in Commissioner Maria DeCaprio Sunta’s basement studio.
DeCaprio Sunta, who works in watercolor, mixed media and photography in addition to teaching, explained her fairy house has a lookout tower made from a clay flower pot and sticks.
“It allows a place for the fairies to gather,” she said. “The fairy garden theme was selected to allow children to use their imagination and search skills while walking on the nature path.”
The commission recently started exhibiting “Spring Awakening,” a sculpture by Dale Rogers at Miss Natalie’s Little Free Library and Book Bench behind the Palos Heights Recreation Center, 6601 W. 127th St. Commission members, in addition to DeCaprio Sunta, Schiappa, De Koker and Oosterbaan, include Vanessa Sunta and Kathleen Peters.
Janice Neumann is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
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