Eventually, origami blossomed and grew into the massive sculptures Box makes today. Additionally, it organically dovetailed with Box’s initial interest in public art and led to a bigger audience than he could have imagined.

On a hunch that botanical gardens would be interested, the Boxes created “Origami in the Garden” as a traveling exhibition with no clients, no prospects, but a strong belief in the power of public art.

“Botanical gardens are outdoor museums, and because they don’t collect, they have the space and spectacular gardens to display in,” he explained. “And it has been a perfect fit ever since 2014 when we launched our first show in the Santa Fe Botanical Garden. We have exhibited in over 15 gardens since, with over two million visitors. The shows have impacted our gallery sales around the country and reached out to so many more people than public art ever has.”

This year, “Origami in the Garden” moves on to the Huntsville Botanical Garden in Alabama and the Las Cruces Museums in New Mexico. In the summer, the exhibit will be featured at the Fort Worth Botanical Garden. On top of all that, the Boxes still do public artworks, and this year they are building a series of three origami “Iron Horses” out of corten steel for the city of Dublin, California.

The couple also occasionally welcomes visitors to their three-acre Turquoise Trail Sculpture Garden in Los Cerrillos, New Mexico. For more information, visit origamiinthegarden.com.

A version of this article appears in the fall/winter 2022 Visual Arts Journal.

Features

Box creates giant-sized origami sculptures that are a marvel to be seen in botanical gardens across the country.