If you’ve ever gone down West Valencia Mesa Drive, you have probably seen animal and insect-like sculptures made from palm fronds either sitting, standing, crouching, or perched in upright positions in different front yards, residential street corners, and in front of the Emmanuel Episcopal Church. I’ve often wondered who makes these sculptures and why, so I contacted the church to see if I could obtain the name of the artist behind the works and was provided with contact information for Glen Mann, who has been working with found objects for years, beginning with his time living in Long Beach, and who continues to construct his unique sculptures after moving to North Orange County.

“Well, I lived in Long Beach on the third floor of a condo building, and on the third floor, you could see the top of all the queen palm trees,” said Mann. “So every day, I’d wake up and see them, and finally, I just fell in love with them. I saw how beautiful they were, how the seed pods formed, and how they grew. Then, on the ground, I found one of the seed pod casings, so I made a small animal out of it and had it in the bushes. I had a yard sale, and a neighbor offered to pay for it. I said, ‘Just take it. It’s not even for sale.’ So that started the whole palm frond thing. I saw that people were just drawn to it. Everything I made got such a strong reaction.”

Early on a Thursday morning in late July, I met Mann by the church’s community garden. He brought with him a red folder filled with notes that people had left on his old building. Going through the folder, he showed me photos of his sculptures that were made into physical cards by community members, revealed photos taken of some of his older bird-like palm frond sculptures, and read a few letters and correspondence complimenting his art, including one from an admirer of his work from Japan. Something in the folder must have jogged his memory because he recounted someone stealing an alligator sculpture he made and remembered that the next week, they left an envelope on his door with an apology and $100 in it.

Mann said, “I would go around the city at night, initially just putting them out, and then the president of the neighborhood association found out who I was because I was making something outside, and she goes, ‘So, you’re the guy.’ She kind of outed me, so then I was invited to events in Long Beach; they had an open invitation, and I was in the newspapers. Then, I was a featured artist at Night Dive at the Aquarium of the Pacific two years in a row. I didn’t like the attention, but I dealt with it; I’d rather just do it anonymously.”

He later left Long Beach with his partner and moved to Yorba Linda. Mann explained that he didn’t think his art would go over well in Orange County because he initially thought, “It’s so manicured here; Long Beach is a little less kept.” Mann’s neighbor, who happens to work at the Emmanuel Episcopal Church’s preschool here in Fullerton, saw one of his bird sculptures and thought her director would love it. So, he showed it to the director, who said he could use a side of the property to work on his art.

“I immediately was excited because for like two years, I was meditating on finding a space where I could grow plants, farm even, and do my artwork,” said Mann. “And I thought that wasn’t going to happen, and I’d have to go out of the county somewhere where cheap land is. But then this came along, and I thought, ‘How perfect.’ I could do my artwork; there’s a huge community garden, and at the preschool, I help out, volunteer, do whatever they need, so it’s a nice trade-off.”

Birds lend themselves naturally to palm fronds; at least, that’s what Mann thinks. While walking around the church’s community garden in a wide-brimmed hat, he explained that he used to transport all his creations on the top of his 24-year-old Nissan Xterra. One day, a man stopped and asked Mann if he could put some of the sculptures in his backyard for a garden tour in order to raise money for cancer, so Mann did. A few women from the zoo who were on the tour said he perfectly captured the look of the birds.

He proceeded to show me an intricately constructed head that had fallen off a once 21-foot giraffe sculpture, which had fallen down in the wind and had been deconstructed. According to Mann, his giraffes are very popular, but so are the birds, turtles, alligators, and insects he makes. In fact, he says that insects were his most commonly stolen sculptures in Long Beach. It turns out, despite his doubts, Mann’s artwork has been well-received in Orange County, except in Yorba Linda, where he put up a bunch of sculptures around the city, and they disappeared in a couple of days.

“I know a guy who has a landscaping company, and when he does queen palm trees, he’ll ask me if I need the parts. That’s pretty nice; in Long Beach, I used to have to scavenge for them,” said Mann. “I don’t consider myself an artist. I never did. I’m just creative, I think. But I’m more guided by something. Like I’ll find pieces and see what they’re going to be.”