The Botanical Mural
This mural features greatly magnified botanical illustrations of locally occurring tiny wild plants, both native species and weeds, at different stages of growth and decay. Some of the plants featured were found growing in the cracks of the sidewalk directly in front of the wall.
The Botanical mural was the first in which my ubiquitous magnified small wild plants took the foreground alone, and it is the mural that spawned my street art and photography project “Weeds”, which shares its theme and intention.
By nurturing the perception of beauty within subject matter that is often unseen, or perceived as lacking in value, use, legitimacy, dignity, even a right to exist, this painting attempts to question the selective attention we pay to things, depending on some acquired notion of value, or depending on whether something is placed on a pedestal or found in a gutter.
