For more information:
• Yew Dell Gardens, 6220 Old LaGrange Rd., P.O. Box 1334, Crestwood, KY 40014, (502) 241-4788

Producer: Valerie Trimble
Videographers: John Schroering, David Dampier
Audio: Brent Abshear
Editor: Jim Piston

Down the Garden Path

Yew Dell Gardens

Theodore Klein built a national and international reputation as a plantsman—a breeder and propagator of new varieties. A self-taught artisan, he also built, with his wife, Martha Lee, a 33-acre private estate in Oldham County that featured formal gardens in several styles and hand-crafted fieldstone buildings—including a small-scale castle.

Klein died in 1998, and the property was rezoned for industrial development. But fortunately for nature lovers, a group of volunteers had a different idea: to preserve and restore the estate while carrying on Klein’s work of developing new plant varieties. Today the former Klein home is an arboretum dedicated to horticultural research and education and to welcoming visitors in search of peace and beauty.

Open weekdays during the winter and seven days a week from April to November, Yew Dell Gardens offers visitors a variety of scenic vistas. The Serpentine Garden invites wandering among a world-class collection of evergreens, while the colors of the formal English-style walled garden change with the season. A not-really-secret “secret garden” serves as a nursery for new plants and for testing companion plantings. And throughout the grounds, Klein’s graceful stone structures add a touch of the Cotswolds to the Kentucky landscape. You can meander on your own or sign up for a guided tour with a knowledgeable volunteer docent.

Yew Dell Gardens also offers classes for all ages as well as a summer camp for kids and sponsors excursions to tour other notable nurseries and gardens throughout the region.

Producer, editor: Michael DePersio
Videographers: Darius Barati, Jessica Comer, Michael DePersio

From the Streets

painter Tom Pfannerstill

Tom Pfannerstill paints trash. And in his case, that’s not a moral or aesthetic judgment; it’s the literal truth. While wandering the streets of Louisville, he picks up discarded boxes, candy wrappers, fast-food containers, and other detritus and takes it back to his studio to meticulously re-create it in acrylics.

His purposes, he says, are to show that most of us don’t really look at some of the most common objects in our lives (quick—describe the wrapper your favorite fast-food burger comes in!) and to remind us of “the transitory nature of all things.” The items Pfannerstill paints were mass-produced, designed by marketers specifically to be appealing and identical. But by the time one becomes the subject of a painting, it has been deformed, marked, damaged, and otherwise altered by the path it took—made individual by the circumstances of its own little “life story.” Pfannerstill records the end of that story on the back of each painting, documenting exactly when and where the object was found.

Born in Milwaukee, Pfannerstill moved to Bowling Green with his family at the age of 12 and studied printmaking and ceramics at Western Kentucky University. After moving to Louisville, he also took up sculpting. In order to be as realistic as possible, he often sculpts his discarded objects in wood to explore their three-dimensional form before starting to paint them.

A slide show of some of the results is available online from the Cumberland Gallery of Nashville. The Kentucky Arts Council’s online gallery of works by 2004 Al Smith Fellowship winners includes several examples of a different series by Pfannerstill, Heads.

For more information:
• Frankfort Habilitation, 3755 Lawrenceburg Rd., Frankfort, KY 40601, (502) 227-9529

Producer, videographer: Dave Shuffett

Helping Hands

Frankfort Habilitation

Host Dave Shuffett meets some inspiring people in our next segment as he visits Frankfort Habilitation, a vocational education facility that serves adults with disabilities.

Frankfort Habilitation’s services include counseling, training, and placement resources to help clients find jobs. But it’s also a sheltered workshop that carries out manufacturing and assembly jobs under contracts with other businesses. Clients who have not completed their training or who would not be able to compete in the open labor market work on-site, earning salaries while doing productive work in a caring and supportive atmosphere.