What started out as artist Seward Johnson’s personal gifts for friends and family has become the gift of inspiration for local artists. Trayscapes: Nature, Nostalgia & the Art of Everyday, an indoor exhibition featuring rarely seen trays hand-painted trays by Johnson, is on view June 7 – July 31 at the Dallas Arboretum’s DeGoyler House.
Born in New Jersey in 1930, Johnson is best known for his life-size bronze figurative sculptures capturing the magic of everyday moments. At the heart of Trayscapes are hand-painted trays Johnson created as gifts for family and friends in the 1960s.
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WATCH HERE“These trays show us a quieter side of Seward Johnson,” said Dustin Miller, Vice President of Programs and Learning at the Dallas Arboretum. “They’re not only beautiful—they’re deeply personal. They invite us to slow down and notice the small, meaningful moments in our own lives.”
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SIGN UP Each tray features a quiet, heartfelt scene from his life in Hopewell, New Jersey; Nantucket, Massachusetts; and Grounds For Sculpture, the 42-acre sculpture park he founded in New Jersey. Blending soft watercolor washes with sculptural textures, the trays reflect the artist’s deep affection for place, memory, and the poetry of everyday life.
These personal works inspire local artists. The Dallas Arboretum commissioned six Dallas-area artists, Alan R. Smith, AlliK Designs, Dustin Vyers, Emily Herrera, Erin Newton, Florence Goss, Oliver Freeston, Taylor Paladino, The Spiritual Artist CJ Miller, Will Heron, and Zarina Karapteyan, to create original works that start a dialogue between past and present, national and local, memory and imagination.
Trayscapes will be on display in the DeGolyer House daily from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and is included with general garden admission. Some of the local artist works will be available for purchase. There will also be a VIP “Meet the Artist” event on June 10 during one of the Arboretum’s Garden Nights. Visitors will be able to meet and engage with the local artists behind Trayscapes, adding a personal and interactive touch to the evening’s festivities. Guests will experience firsthand the stories and inspirations that shaped the exhibition.
This indoor exhibition complements what the Dallas Arboretum has on view outdoors: a series of Johnson’s sculptures that were unveiled during the Arboretum’s Dallas Blooms: Outside the Ordinary festival.
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Greeting visitors in spectacular fashion is Crossing Paths, Johnson’s monumental work featuring two women chatting while sitting on a bench. The sculpture’s home is Grounds For Sculpture, and this is the first time the work has traveled outside of New Jersey. The sculpture can be seen from Garland Road. While this scene is larger-than-life, the subject is so ordinary it might be overlooked. Johnson saw beauty in the ordinary.
“It’s all about the small slices of life,” Miller said at the opening of Dallas Blooms.
The other sculptures currently display at the Dallas Arboretum through September 1 are life-sized, scattered throughout the garden. A woman tends her garden while her dog jumps up for attention. A man licks an ice cream cone. A soldier receives a warm welcome home. An artist paints a familiar landscape. The sculptures’ hyper-realistic details surprise visitors. That is the intended reaction Johnson, who died in 2020, described in a statement for Grounds for Sculpture’s web site.
“I want my work to disappear into the landscape and then take a viewer by surprise. After he gets over the shock of being fooled, it becomes an emotional discovery. Then he owns the sculpture. People often revisit their favorites. They become like friends,” Johnson said.
Learn more: Dallas Arboretum
