Botanical
I am a big fan of botanic illustration, I started out making botanic embroideries with a mini series of Mary Delaney (an 18th Century British botanic illustrator who became renowned for her decoupage illustrations in her 70s made up of teeny painted pieces of paper) inspired embroideries on black canvas. I've since stitched Colorado wildflowers, helping me to orientate myself here after immigrating from the UK. More recent embroideries have also featured leaves of ferns, one of the most ancient plant species on the planet and tropical plants. I think there is something really valuable about learning about plants through making them and having them in your home in whatever form that takes. When it comes to plants, I think they are so powerful as imprints of the nature we come into contact with all the time, without even realising it, from the plants that spring up through pavement cracks, to the extravagant orchids at botanic gardens, to the dusty office plants that sit in the background. I love the form of botanic illustration and am always drawn to the shapes and colours in plants and how they piece together as part of our experience of place and belonging in an embodied and often subconscious way, wanting to celebrate all the details in light and form.