Mushroom Meadow

A 2026 Outdoor Sculpture Installation at Choate Park

Medway Art Association created a series of whimsical, hand-painted & collaged mushroom sculptures installed at Choate Park, forming a small outdoor-art sculpture garden along Choate Pond.

Each piece was uniquely designed and painted by a member of the newly established Medway Art Association, celebrating creativity, community, & local craftsmanship.

Noelle Fiori Jackson

Where Poppies Rise

A mixed-media feminist collage unfolds through a mushroom-like form, speaking to equity & empowerment. Poppies—symbols of resilience—push defiantly through rock, revealing how strength can take root in even the harshest conditions. At the center, a woman stands both grounded and transcendent, lifting the poppies upward; her presence embodies care, resistance, and collective uplift. Butterfly wings emerging from her chest represent transformation, while the lotus flower signifies rebirth rising from adversity. Together, these elements form a powerful narrative of growth, survival, and self-realization.

Carla Tucker

Blue Sentinel

This painted mushroom sculpture transforms a woodland form into a graceful wetland scene inspired by the great blue heron. Marsh water and reeds rise from the base while the heron’s long legs extend up the stem, its blue-gray body wraps across the cap, and its curved neck reaches downward with a fish in its beak. Designed to be viewed from all sides, the sculpture reflects the quiet beauty and movement of the nearby pond landscape.

Canman

Mycelium Energy

Mycelium Energy by Canman explores the unseen intelligence flowing beneath the surface of natural systems. Inspired by the underground mycelial networks that connect forests, fungi, and ecosystems, the sculpture transforms a mushroom into a radiant symbol of hidden communication, growth, and energetic exchange. Vibrant neon gradients pulse across the form, while repeating geometric patterns and flowing linework suggest frequencies, pathways, and encoded information moving through living matter.

The mushroom becomes more than an organism—it acts as an antenna between worlds: organic and digital, microscopic and cosmic. Its luminous surface evokes the invisible currents that sustain life, echoing how mycelium transfers nutrients, signals distress, and supports interconnected survival beneath the forest floor.

Through color, pattern, and symbolic abstraction, Canman reimagines fungal biology as a visual language of consciousness, transformation, and collective energy. Mycelium Energy invites viewers to consider the powerful systems operating beyond immediate perception and reflect on humanity’s own place within the vast, interconnected web of life.

Angela Cannistraro

Beneath the Bloom

Beneath the Bloom draws inspiration from spores, the tiny beginnings of new growth that drift, settle, and transform in ways we rarely see. The mushroom form becomes a symbol of quiet movement, patience, and emergence, with each dot placed like a spore in motion, gathering across the surface until the pattern feels alive.

Using vibrant turquoise, coral, violet, and gold against a deep black surface, Angela creates a rhythm that feels both organic and dreamlike. The repeating dot work suggests spores spreading outward, small marks multiplying into something bold, layered, and full of movement. The sculpture invites the viewer to look closer at what nature often hides in plain sight: resilience, timing, and the beauty of tiny things working together.

Through color, pattern, and texture, Beneath the Bloom celebrates the quiet beginning before the bloom. It reflects the idea that growth often starts in darkness, then rises into something visible, vivid, and alive.

Lindsey Collelli

Penny Budde, Olivia Colelli, Joseph Colelli Jr, Henry Barrows, Julianna Crosby, Claire Sharkey, Gabrielle Crosby, Alexander Colelli, Athena Laforest & Eliana Colelli

Roots of Hope, Wings of Peace

This collaborative artwork, created by nine of Medway’s young artists ranging from preschool to high school, celebrates the rebirth and renewal of a nation through the power of hope, unity, and nature. Each individual piece tells a story of transformation-from darkness to light, from struggle to strength, and from brokenness to new beginnings. Symbols of growth, kindness, and diversity are woven together to show that when we care for one another and our world, beautiful things can emerge. The mushroom shape represents a sheltering space for new ideas and a strong foundation for the future. Together, these pieces remind us that every small act of hope contributes to a brighter, more peaceful tomorrow.

The background is painted with flowing colors, light, and nature elements that connect all the individual pieces into one harmonious scene. Soft swirls of blues, purples, greens, and golds bring unity and movement, while highlights of light represent hope, growth, and renewal. The phoenix made of flowers with feathers flowing across the mushroom cap and connecting the individual pieces, represents the spirit of renewal that ties all the pieces together.

Jill Perkins

Under One Sky

Choate Park holds many special memories for me and my family. One in particular that stands out was a starlight walk that brought a strong feeling of being grounded and grateful for being together in this life. For my sculpture, I wanted to create a glowing nod to our cosmic connection. My mushroom is a celebration of connection and identity. Like a mushroom emerging from an unseen mycelial network, we move through life as separate individuals, yet beneath our daily lives runs a hidden web of ancestry, memory, love, and influence. The night-sky surface is painted with the zodiac constellations of my family members, symbolizing how we are connected to one another beneath the same stars. Together, the mushroom and constellations reflect the invisible bonds that shape who we are and remind us that we are part of something larger than ourselves.

Mary Weafer

Tea in the Park

Celebrating the Simpler Times of Picnicking and the Early Days of Choate Park

In the early 1900s, a picnic at the park was a cherished way for families and friends to spend leisure time on weekends and holidays. Gatherings centered around simple things, games, good company, and the enjoyment of the outdoors.

Families arrived with wicker picnic baskets filled with cold meats, sandwiches, baked goods, and fresh fruit, often accompanied by homemade lemonade or iced tea. While the meals were informal, the attire reflected the fashion of the era. Women wore long skirts, blouses, and bonnets, while men dressed in suits and hats.

Large plaid blankets or handmade quilts were spread across the grass, creating comfortable spaces for conversation and relaxation. Rather than disposable items, families used dishes, glassware, and silverware brought from home, adding a touch of elegance to these outdoor occasions. The painted top of Lily of Valley reflects the Art Nouveau style at that time.

Mary Weafer

Spring Blooms

The peony is one of the spring blooms I most look forward to. They are the signs of warmer days, and bring so much color and life with their full lush blooms, of bright pinks, red & yellow. Each one is made of layers of petals gathered creating such depth. Pink peonies meaning good fortune, love & honor.

This stem I created by using recycled glass and mirror to reflect the surroundings.

Catherine Byrne

Shift of the Wild

This piece captures the serene majesty of a Massachusetts summer evening as daylight fades into twilight . Creatures find sanctuary among the darkening foliage, and native birds are silhouetted against a glowing sky as the sun dips below the horizon. You are invited to feel the peace, awe and interconnectedness of the natural world during its magical transition from the daytime to the nocturnal.

Robin Hackett

Pearl, the Swirl

This sculpture draws inspiration from the way mushrooms emerge from discarded matter, transforming decay into new life through vast underground networks of connection and exchange. Built from found toys and trinkets, including materials shared by students from Medway Public Schools, the piece reflects the hidden social ecosystems surrounding toy culture, collecting, trading, nostalgia, and shared memory. Like fungal networks spreading unseen beneath the surface, these objects carry invisible connections between people, childhood, consumption, and community. Through playful color and dense accumulation, the work imagines a mushroom where discarded objects continue to grow, communicate, and evolve.

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