Vivid Creatures

An exhibition of giant, colorful sculptures as tall as trees is opening soon at The Morton Arboretum.

Vivid Creatures, a new outdoor art exhibition at The Morton Arboretum, is an invitation to explore our connections with the natural world through giant, colorful, playful animal sculptures placed outdoors amid towering trees and sweeping green vistas. Each artwork tells a story about the relationships between creatures and the ecosystems where they live.

Guests of all ages can delight in an oversized deer, snail, squirrel, dragonfly, and sandhill crane—all animals native to northern Illinois—depicted in brightly decorated larger-than-life artworks up to 24 feet tall.

The sculptures will be placed among the tree collections and natural areas of The Morton Arboretum, the Chicago area’s largest public garden, where some of these creatures live.

The five sculptures were created exclusively for The Morton Arboretum by Fez BeGaetz and Heather BeGaetz of Portland, Oregon. Go behind the build and read about the inspiration and creative process behind the sculptures.

Exhibition Details

Vivid Creatures will open on Saturday, May 17, 2025. The exhibition will be included with admission to the Arboretum.

On Friday, May 16, Arboretum members will get to see the sculptures the day before they are officially on display for the public. Become a member to get a first look.

Guests can also get a chance to hear from the artists during a walking tour scheduled both in the morning and the afternoon of the exhibition’s debut on Saturday, May 17. Register for the Vivid Creatures Walking Tour to hear about their creative process and the stories that inspired the sculptures.

Presenting Sponsor:

Heather BeGaetz and Fez BeGaetz are partners in life and art. The duo creates large-scale sculptures and environments that have been exhibited internationally at numerous immersive art destinations, art and music festivals, conferences, and urban spaces. They live and work near the shores of the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, on the unceded lands of Chinook and Kalapuya people. They have a daughter, Calliope.

Together, Fez and Heather love to make works that people can experience from afar, up close, or underneath.

In her sculptural works, Heather BeGaetz creates enormous art beings that invite people to take sanctuary in wonder and enter worlds of imagination. Her creative roots in the performing arts as a theatrical writer, director, performer, and mask-maker inform her large-scale sculptures and immersive art environments.

Fez BeGaetz integrates a lifetime of building skills with explorations at the edge of his imagination into fantastical large-scale art. He is skilled at designing for modularity in large-scale works while bringing a maverick creative agility to engineering, fabrication, and installation challenges. Honed by over a decade of experience as an Antarctica expedition guide, his creative intelligence is shaped by the artful forces of ice, wind, and the sea.

Behind the Build

How are these large-scale sculptures made? Working with a small team at their studio in Portland, Oregon, artists Fez BeGaetz and Heather BeGaetz spent many months designing, planning, and fabricating the monumental sculptures in Vivid Creatures, the new art exhibition at The Morton Arboretum.

The sculptures began in the imagination of the artists, inspired by wildlife they encountered on a visit to The Morton Arboretum. They used digital design software to analyze their detailed drawings and determine the underlying structure and materials needed to fabricate the sculptures. Because the artworks have to be transported from the artists’ studio in Portland, Oregon, they were designed in modules that would fit on a truck and could be assembled at the Arboretum.

Inside each sculpture is a supporting armature made of sheet metal and connecting rods that you might think of as a skeleton. The steel used in the sculptures is 80 percent recycled. To make the armatures, steel sheets were cut to a precise shape, held in position by a wooden scaffold, and then welded in place.

Once at the Arboretum, the artists and their team will assemble the pieces together and paint them to imaginatively evoke characteristics of the animals: the vivid colors of a snail’s iridescent shell, feathers reflected in the surface of water, or the playfulness of creatures scattering acorns through the forest. The painted surfaces will then be then sealed for durability and be ready for their debut.

See the sculptures yourself when Vivid Creatures opens on Saturday, May 17.

Register for the Vivid Creatures Walking Tour to learn more about the creative process and the inspiration behind the exhibition.

Accessibility

Four of the five sculptures will be within walking distance of the Arboretum’s central Visitor Center, and guests will be able to view several of the sculptures from Meadow Lake Trail, which loops around a manmade lake located directly outside the Visitor Center. The 0.6-mile paved asphalt loop has a typical grade of 3% and a maximum grade of 8%. The fifth sculpture is not accessible by wheelchair as it will be installed on the berm that separates the Arboretum from Interstate Highway 88 and will require a drive and a steeper climb to visit.

Parking Lot 1 has accessible parking spaces and is close to the Visitor Center and Meadow Lake Trail. The distance from the furthest parking spot to the main entrance of the Visitor Center is one-quarter of a mile. The accessible parking spaces and pathways from Parking Lot 1 to the Visitor Center feature smooth pavers.

Accessible restrooms are available in the Visitor Center, at the beginning and end of the main Vivid Creatures loop.

Learn more about Accessibility at The Morton Arboretum.