‘Nature Boy’ pops up in Clinical Center courtyards

No, you’re eyes aren’t deceiving you. There is an elf of sorts visiting the courtyards and walls of the Clinical Center, and he hopes to bring a smile to your face.

His name, or the name of the series of photographs to be more precise, is “Nature Boy,” the work of Pennsylvania artist Keith Sharp. The exhibit includes 13 garden pieces from the “Nature Boy” series, which arrived in July, and eight framed wall pieces from other series by the artist that are coming to the Hatfield building’s west gallery in September.

The garden pieces came to the CC after gracing the greenery of the US Botanic Garden, which pressed the black-and-white photos between humidity-proof Plexiglas and placed them on stakes to create a whimsical juxtaposition of man and nature.

Lillian Fitzgerald, who works in the CC Office of Facilities Management as curator of the art exhibits, brought Sharp’s work to Building 10 as part of the CC’s art program, which includes eight galleries with rotating exhibits and a permanent collection of approximately 2,000 original works of art.

The “Nature Boy” series combines Sharp’s interests in nature and self-portraiture by transforming himself into a tree creature, an image influenced by Greek and Roman mythology of people transforming into trees, the Druids, and Native American transformation stories. The framed wall pieces are photographs from other series that also contain humor and surrealistic elements.

Sharp said many people respond to the humor in his work, which he hopes will allow people to forget about their problems, if only for a little while, and bring joy to CC patients, visitors, and staff.

The element of surprise and mystery in Sharp’s visual puns is intentional. Although he documented the world in a straightforward way when he started in photography, Sharp soon began to tease the quirky elements out of his pictures and create staged, conceptual images. He now begins each series by sketching various ways that he can transform the everyday world through his imagination and make his viewers do a double-take.

The props and costumes Sharp assembled for his “Nature Boy” performances, of which a photograph is the end result, were created from natural and artificial materials, including bark, leaves, flowers, old clothes, fabric, plastics, paint, and glue.

“Juxtaposing elements within the photographs as well as between two photographs, I attempt to make the viewer look at ordinary life in new and unique ways. I am interested in pointing out the irony and contradictions in life—not everything is what it seems,” he said.

Both portions of the exhibit leave the CC in November, so commune with “Nature Boy” while he’s here.