If you’ve visited Reinstein Woods this summer, you may have noticed people taking photos of themselves with a ten-foot tall, 500-pound metal “flower garden” in the parking lot. “Steel Magnolias” is a sculpture by artist Bryan Lago, generously donated to Reinstein Woods by former NYS Assemblyman Paul Tokasz and his wife, Sylvia Tokasz.

The sculpture was originally purchased by the Tokasz family at the 2003 “Art on Wheels” auction to benefit the Burchfield Penney Art Center and the Materials Re-use Project. The auction involved used cars being transformed into “mobile art” pieces by a variety of artists, while other artists created wheel-themed sculptures using recycled materials. The pieces were to be placed outside “cultural institutions and heritage sites” in the Buffalo-Niagara region.

The auction program stated that Steel Magnolias “reflects some of the scenes painted by Charles E. Burchfield to represent growth, renewal, and the regeneration of the spirit.” The Tokasz family indicated that the metal in the sculpture came from industrial equipment that was no longer in use in Western New York, thus recycling items like old fans and road fixing machines into a thing of beauty.

Reinstein Woods would like to contact Bryan Lago to learn more about his creation. If anyone has any information about the artist, please call (716) 683-5959.