News See What This Man Can Create From a Bush Gardens

Oct. 24, 2014 - Tourists from all around the world come to Bishopville, South Carolina, to see Pearl Fryar's topiary garden. Fryar spends five to ten years getting each plant to take shape. He hopes visitors will learn valuable lessons about perseverance from his creations.



Pearl Fryar



Topiary Artist



[00:06] - When you look at a piece of my work, my real work, I don't want anything to catch your eye before you see what I want you to see. It's not any particular shape, it's not an animal, it's not geometric, it's just kind of an abstract free-flowing. But I want to capture you, a person, with the structure of that plant and the way I was able to make it flow, and come up with an image.



[00:32] - And it took me four and a half years to go from a mushroom look, to get this tree to square…



[00:38] - I really want when they walk through this garden, especially young people, to see what can be accomplished by using what you have. See, not everyone is gifted academically, but everyone has a talent, everyone has a gift.



Jean Grosser



Chair, Department of Art



Coker College



[00:59] - What is so moving and so important about his work is that it is organic, it is non-representational. The thing that is astounding also about the way Pearl works, is that it takes him so long to do something. And these 18-year-olds, they're coming to college, they are so accustomed to having things instantly, but I want them to meet Pearl so he can say to them, I have this idea, and I invest this time in it, and I can see it in my mind, and in 5 years I see what I imagined.









Pearl Fryar



[01:30] - It just flows, and that's one of those pieces that if I were an artist I could paint, I could make a beautiful painting out of that.



[01:45] - If you said to me "wash your car", I don't have the patience to wash my car. But I have the patience to work on a plant for 5 to 10 years. And most images take at least 5 years. But the pleasure is really when you can accomplish something that you've been working on for 5 years, and it come out, and it's pretty good. And you get compliments. That's pretty rewarding.



I could have easily just came out and landscaped it like everyone else was doing. But you're never going to get attention doing what everyone else is doing. You gotta come up with something different.









Jean Grosser



[02:28] - Pearl has had a huge impact on the culture and the economy of this region, it's a very poor area of the state, and people come from all over the state, all over the country, and all over the world to see his works.



Pearl Fryar



[02:43] - This is I, I love you. See, my garden is about love, life is about sharing.









Beverly Fulmore



Garden Tourist



[02:53] - It's great, it's really just beautiful. And in every area of his garden, I think it has a meaning to it. There's words and different sayings in every setting, so it's just a lot of himself actually, you can tell, into what he's doing. Lot of passion, lot of love in it.









Pearl Fryar



[03:12] - I think anytime a person looks at something and says the task is too big, they don't have the ability to do it. If you have the ability to do a thing, you're going to do it, it's not too big. Wether it's Bill Gates, or wether it's Oprah Winfrey, wether it's Sam Walton, or wether it's Pearl Fryar in Bishopbille, cutting up bushes.



