I began a perpetual journal as a way of slowing down and paying attention to the nature that surrounds me. Many years ago, someone asked me a question that has stayed with me: If you weren’t an artist, what would you do? My answer has always been connected to plants. I have long been fascinated by their healing properties…the ways plants have been used to nourish, soothe, restore, and sustain us. So I’ve decided to bring those two interests together in a new project.
For the next five years, I’ll be documenting the plants in my surroundings, one week at a time. A perpetual journal gives me the opportunity to return to the same pages year after year, noticing what is blooming, changing, disappearing, and returning. It is as much a practice of observation as it is a record. Painting a plant asks me to really look at it. And perhaps that is the heart of this project: learning to see what is already here.
Over five years, I hope these pages will become more than a collection of botanical studies. I want them to hold a record of place and season, curiosity and discovery; a visual diary of the living world around me, and a continuing exploration of the relationship between art, nature, and the healing properties of plants.
Leave a Reply