Erin Connolly: Bug Twirls, Vancouver Garden, and Geranium Memory. Oil and Ink on canvas accompanied by poetry.
“I wanted to focus on connecting different memories myself, my friends, and family members have to specific plants and flowers with this small series, which I was able to do through anonymous interviews with people in my life.”
Madalyn Redding: watercolor paintings and reflections on plants in interior spaces on campus
“I went to the spaces to do sketches and quick paintings of the plants, and then filled in more details once I returned to my apartment and had more of my materials and time available to me. These paintings were accompanied by reflections on that space and how the plants changed them. I spent time observing people in each of these locations and wrote about what I thought about them.”
Nora Lou: seasonally inspired cuisine, art works, and journal
“In this project, I created a meal with three dishes, each using seasonal ingredients from late October, early November, and late November, respectively. I also created three artworks inspired by each dish. This project aims to celebrate the seasonality of plant ingredients and emphasize the importance of enjoying them at their prime time. Seasonality is a complex concept in today’s agricultural system, and I would love to explore more on the topic.”
Mia Brown-Seguin: colored pencil depictions of plant viruses
“I was inspired to work with plant viruses because the Tulip Mania piqued my interest in this subject. It is shocking to me that viruses, such as those depicted above, can influence the health of plants so significantly yet appear so beautiful. I chose to depict these four viruses in a hyper-realistic colored pencil drawing because it can accurately convey the exquisite features of wilting and mosaiced leaves and the changes in the fruits of each of these plants.”
Danielle DelConte: dried flower arrangements on paper with quotes
“The flowers used were grown and collected in Ithaca, in both my grandfather’s garden and the Cornell Botanic Gardens. The flowers were dried and pressed after harvest. The paper used for the background was handmade in the Art of Horticulture class, incorporating seeds and flowers in the paper pulp, which added an organic, textured background. This project is strongly inspired by my grandfather and the impact he made on me and my decision to pursue a career in horticulture. Using the flowers I collected with my grandfather give these pieces so much more sentimental value to me, as he unfortunately passed away during the course of the semester after a long battle with Alzheimer’s.”
Hannah Tolz: handwritten, illustrated, and bound book of nature spirits
“The inspiration was my love for the spirited creatures and earthlings around me. I am very drawn to the idea that everything is just as alive as I am, that there are sweet energies that reside within everything, and that we can find magic in the existence of all that is around us. Too often are we distracted by the silly things we feel are important. In an attempt to rewild myself and form a reconciliation with my inner desire to be free from the misplaced priorities in my life — I crafted this book.”
Kathy Khuyen Nguyen: handknit, leaf-pattern shawl dyed with onion skins, accompanied by journal
“My final project involved exploring how natural dyes can be affected by different types of chemical mordants. I gathered the onion skins needed from the food waste of local restaurants and grocery stores in the Ithaca area. Once dyed, I knit the colored yarn into a large leaf patterned shawl in order to showcase the variety of colors I was able to achieve from the different combinations. I chose to use only onion skins because of their beginner-friendly nature in natural dyeing and because I wanted to show the diversity in color one can achieve through only one plant material. Starting from the top of the shawl, the progression of colors follows: red onions with alum mordant; red onions with iron mordant; yellow onions with iron mordant; red onions with no mordant; yellow onions with no mordant; yellow onions with alum mordant.”
Emma Silva: handmade dress symbolizing the ever-changing nature of gardens across seasons, inspired by Libe Slope Wild Garden
“The Libe Slope Wild Garden’s purpose is expressly to show the public the ephemeral nature of ecosystems, which this dress encapsulates. The dress that begins represents the garden during August and early September, during late summer and early fall. The dress itself features a green ball gown to represent the flowy green grasses that sway in the wind. It also has yellow flowers representing the late season blooms of the Showy goldenrods, the leaves of the wild senna who have already begun to seed, and the pollinators that flew around the garden in the late summer season, including bees and the migrating monarch butterflies. The pink sleeves represent the bright blazing stars that lined the path of the garden and gave sustenance to the visiting pollinators. After the metaphorical transition of the dress from late summer to fall, The dress features a mauve colored ball gown with browns, icy greens, and red, representing the changing colors of the once green grasses into a large variety of fall colored grasses now flowing through the much crisper winds. The top features white fluffs representing the large clumps of white seed that have taken over the once colorful flowers’ spots.”
Marianne Juca: 14 cyanotypes of local flora
“This was my last fall semester in Ithaca, and my heart tightens knowing I won’t experience the same autumnal foliage for the foreseeable future. This project was a great introduction to using alternative photographic printing techniques, and the sheer volume of my project allowed me to experiment with many different approaches and techniques. I hope to hang this piece on my wall next year, so that when I look at it I can remember the smell of black walnuts and the armies of mighty ferns in my backyard.”
Ariadne Vazenios: pine basket, grapevine and Virginia creeper basket, and willow bird feeder basket
“Each basket’s purpose is deliberately different, as I wanted to explore the unique qualities of creating from distinguished materials, and I wanted to practice integrating natural items into different corners of my home life (home, garden, hobbies).”
Claire Schmucker: picnic set made of found, natural objects
“As a young child, my family and I grew up having picnics. While other people would buy food, my family would pack it. I’ve outgrown my brief phase of being embarrassed by this and instead begun to take great pleasure in eating this way. And I think my broader passions for growing, preparing, and sharing food contribute to this. Inspired by various class workshops from throughout the semester, some experience making functional eating vessels from clay in high school, and my love for picnics, I saw the task of creating a picnic set from found materials to be an exciting challenge to embark on.”
Giselle Hobbs: living moss sculptures
“After completing tests about moss growth on different surfaces (stone, Styrofoam, wood, etc.), I am creating three-dimensional forms made out of moss. I am making a series of moss cube forms, moss wall art, spherical forms using the kokedama technique that can be suspended, and potentially a larger cloud shape to be hung from the ceiling. At the same time, I have recorded audio in the Botanic Gardens and in natural areas around Ithaca to be played in the exhibition space, along with developing a video component that explains the process.”
Isabela Arocha Martinez: animated short film
“Maple & Me tells the story of a girl named Margo and the Maple tree in her yard. She moves to a small town outside the city where she doesn’t know anyone, and immediately befriends this tree… In the end, she introduces her friends to Maple and she expresses her admiration for its ability to persevere – which mimics her own perseverance as well. I thoroughly enjoyed making this film and it gave me the ability to reconnect with my love for nature as well as show the immense worth of flora and their ability to impact lives.”
Peter McGuigan: traditional scarecrow
“The ‘head’ is a gourd I varnished and painted. The clothing is an old bedsheet I dyed using used coffee grounds, and the neckerchief is dyed using beets. In my research, I read that potatoes and beets were first used in old Halloween-like celebrations, so I wanted to incorporate that into my project. From Saturday to Tuesday morning I installed the scarecrow in an empty field outside the research facility I work for. I also carved five beets as they were the predecessors of contemporary jack-o-lanterns. I tried carving images of plants traditionally used in North America crop-farming and scarecrow craftmanship.”
Blaine Stephens: seasonal progression using plants preserved with variety of techniques
“My creative project attempts to show the progression of the season and the constant changes that happen in the plant word around us. My project is broken down into three separate pieces that each highlight different aspects that are of interest at different times of the season. The first piece focuses on the abundance of summer color and focuses primarily on pressed and dried flowers. The second piece focuses on different fall foliage colors. Finally, the last piece focuses on berries, bark, evergreen leaves, and pinecones.”
Katherine Faiola: original embroidery design with tataki zome, plant-based dyes, and Spotify music code
“I am pleased with my embroidery project’s final results! I especially love the hibiscus part and the Spotify code. First, I hammered my own flower onto the fabric (it did not transfer very well since it was a little past its prime). And the avocado dyed embroidery floss, which is the light pink at the base of the flower, closest to the green (indigo + turmeric dyed floss) stem, fits the actual color of the flower perfectly. Then the indigo top of the flower is capturing how a pounded hibiscus changes to a blue shade on fabric, regardless of how red and pink it is originally. Here’s the Spotify playlist of the songs I listened to while embroidering my project.”
Ada Lian: leaf collage as metaphor for diversity
“This project originated from noticing the difference in shape and sizes of the pothos/philodendron leaves despite being the same variety. This reminds me of how people immediately have a stereotype or assumptions about others just on one’s appearance and race. During the pandemic, there was a rise in hate crimes and xenophobia. There was a lot of divide in the world because of stereotypes. Inspired by the song ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon, this project exhibits the unique shapes, patterns, and sizes of Epipremnum leaves as a way to express that we should celebrate our similarities and differences.”
Ella de Bruijn: technical and artistic representations of Abies balsamea
“My main goal was to exemplify the beauty and art of science, and equally, the science of art. For the first section of my project, I completed a highly scientific depiction of the Balsam Firs using fine-point pens to capture as much detail as possible. Accompanying these drawings, I wrote a field journal entry which describes the ecological habitat and scientific background of these trees. In my second portion, I wanted to approach my depictions of the Firs in a more artistic and interpretive manner. I captured the Balsam Firs in a bubble-like figure, which to me represents their whimsical nature. Accompanying these two pieces, I wrote a reflective creative writing piece along with a Haiku:
Resilient nature
Strength in the old growth display
Growing toward the light”
Vincent Ciampaglione: recycled paper notebooks with plant material
“Most modern paper is made from wood pulp and it is estimated that it takes about 24 trees to produce 1 ton of office paper. With the increased devastation that is the result of deforestation, there is an extreme value in recycling efforts to conserve the land where these trees are sourced. These notebooks combine the practice of recycling with the beauty of plants and their natural pigments. Each sheet is unique in shape and color, with delicate flecks of gladiolus leaves and hues of blue sourced from gladiolus petals. The pages are bound in a work of art, with the cover being sourced from the canvas of a painting destined for the trash, given new life. These small books represent new life of art, but more importantly, the new life of plants as well as the importance of preserving the trees of the suffering landscapes around the world.”
Jasmine Shack: machine cut diatoms and coleus in paper.
“For my final project I created 2 layered papercut pieces. The first features diatoms arranged in a mandala like pattern – partially inspired by the scanner art class. The second reflects the diversity of coleus in appearance visible to us on the macroscopic scale and in the background gives a small look into the coleus at the cellular level. Each element was drawn individually first by hand, then arranged digitally in the design. Then I separated the elements into specific layers and loaded them into the software for the cutter where I designated which areas were to be cut. The design was then cut using a Silhouette machine.”
Kailey O’Donnell: watercolor herbarium specimens on paper
“I wanted my final project to be a reflection of both my time at Cornell and my childhood experiences. I had not realized how much plants have had an impact on my life until I got to Cornell and started work at the Herbarium. A lot of my childhood memories are inextricably linked to plants and the woods I grew up next to. These Herbarium specimens are meant to represent the links between humans and plants, and how we have always felt the need to collect plants like little memories. I think that in a way, Herbariums are a collection of a bunch of different memories from a bunch of different collectors.”
Jiwoo Cheon: plant and culture inspired cuisine, documented in journal
“I developed and baked two desserts, sweet potato rosemary cake and yuzu milk bread with matcha shortbread cookies. In addition to the flavors from the ingredients, the desserts look like the sweet potato and the yuzu plants themselves, incorporating the horticultural elements in a visual way… The booklet includes the photos that I took while baking, pressings of some of the plant ingredients, illustrations of the ones that I couldn’t press like yuzu and matcha, the written recipes, and short journal entries that describe what inspired me to make each dessert. In particular, the journal entries highlight some specific memories from my childhood in Korea that I associate with the flavors that I chose. I decided on this project because I wanted to explore using more plant ingredients creatively in baking, and I wanted to connect some of my childhood experiences with my current environment.”
Brooke Wu: terrarium with sculptures inspired by plants
“I painted the figurines and varied which plant I used as inspiration for the leaf designs. For example, on the dinosaur, I used the Peperomia as inspiration for the spikes. As I was painting and looking more closely at the plants, I noticed more details about the leaves than I had previously. I was happy that my terrarium survived since I don’t have much experience with taking care of plants. I also liked being able to use clay to create 3D figurines for the first time, since I am more used to 2D painting.”
Jeremy Scheck: manipulated plant photography to make prints for textiles
“My work consists of six original photos and 16 digital prints that I created from the originals. Four of the original photos use flowers as the main subject. These pictures are purposely unremarkable. I wanted to see how I could use an ordinary photo to create a beautiful pattern. In addition to the four photos that were only of flowers, I chose to include a photo of tulips in a greenhouse, combining organic and inorganic matter in the subject, and also a photo of a building in New York. I chose to display the prints and the original photos on a website so that the prints could be easily downloaded and used by anyone who would like to use them. I think that these prints could make beautiful textiles. I imagine them being a pattern on high fashion clothing or a colorful silk scarf.” View Jeremy’s digital prints.
Catherine Spolarich: botanical illustrations using plant-based inks
“Through this project I learned how to make natural inks and dyes but I found that my inks were much harder to draw with than the sumi-e ink I usually draw with. You can see the purple ink was very runny and did not work well with my quill and bled into my paper, I should have sketched it on a different paper so that it may have bled less. I was inspired to capture the ephemeral nature of leaves and perennials.”