Botanical Art 2015-present
Wild Plants: This, most recent in-progress series, is made up of plein air monoprints of plants I’ve been struck by on nature walks and felt compelled to capture.
Selected Weeds: Inspired by the practice of “Selective Weeding,” whereby gardeners allow some weeds to grow, this series explores the grey area around weeds and looks closely at some specific wild plants in both urban and rural environments.
Whether native, non native, invasive, or non invasive, many 'weeds' have benefits: hosting insects, feeding wildlife, remediating pollution, controlling erosion, offering aesthetic value, or containing medicinal properties, while drawbacks could include outcompeting cultivated plants or poisoning adjacent crops.
Weeds are arguably more benign in cities when contained by hardscapes, curbing invasive tendencies and requiring low maintenance, resisting disease, and having an ability to grow in disturbed soils under extreme weather conditions.
Having worked in industrial zones, like Gowanus, Brooklyn, for 30 years, I’ve come to love weeds, especially when reframed by asphalt and concrete. I admire their resilience and tenacity, a quality all New Yorkers must cultivate to survive here. And I delight in their emergence in barren corners and in nature's spontaneous curation. In my Brooklyn backyard a small meadow emerges each summer, all from a single crack in the pavement.
Winter Reveals: These botanical drawings were inspired by some nature walks in winter time.
Nature Contained: This series was done in collaboration with an art collective I was part of 2016-2020, The Gowanus Swim Society. Three of us members exhibited works together all inspired by the gardens of the Old Stone House Brooklyn and Washington Park and working with the curator of OSH, Katherine Gressel. Several of the work were done collaboratively, begun in one of our studios and then passed around. Three Siblings was done exclusively by me inspired specifically by the Three Sister’s companion planting in the OSH Gardens.
