A book on textile designs- these pages feature French floral designs for fabric created in 1880

Beauty and the Beast

I bought the rose flower stickers in a market in Medellin, Colombia. Abundant in the stores there, the floral stickers are all imported from China. You could create a whole garden on the wall of your bedroom if you wanted.

Huddle

Oddly enough the word REALTREE floats throughout the pattern in the fabric.

This photograph features a children’s picture book called the Giving Tree, a poignant story written by Shel Silverstein in 1964

This photograph was included in the third edition of the Enjoy Occasional Journal called Dendromaniac, which focused on the subject of trees. The online journal curates material from both local and international artists. http://journal.enjoy.org.nz/the-dendromaniac/

To my mind, a bonsai is a strange human construct – a plant that has been restrained, wired and controlled in order to remind us of a larger natural and wild world. Bonsais are meant to be objects of tranquility and contemplation. The diagram in this photo illustrates ten different forms that the literati or Bunjin style bonsai can take. According to expert Qingquan Zhao literati trees should express aloofness, sparseness, refined elegance and plainness.

Both concrete and asphalt contribute to what is known as the “heat island effect”. Many US cities have 30 – 40% of their surface areas covered in pavement. Particularly in poorer neighborhoods, because of the abundant concrete and lack of trees, temperatures soar.

A New Zealand epiphytic fern.

The background consists of black and white reproductions of the painting Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California by Albert Bierstadt painted in 1868. Bierstadt was known for his enormous romantic landscapes depicting the grandeur of nature.

A copy of Edouard Manet’s famous 1863 painting Dejeuner sur l’Herbe sits on a plastic melamine plate. This was a controversial painting in its time regarding female sexuality. Melamine, a chemical used in plastic dishware, has been shown to leach harmful chemicals.

The images in this work are from historic photographs of the great giant redwoods of California. One shows a famous tree which was hollowed out in the 1800’s to allow tourists to pass through it. This giant sequoia fell in a storm recently in January 2017.

This title comes from a poem by NYC poet Evelyn Riley who is involved in the ecopoetics movement.