Equisetum Returns
Equisetum Returns is an ongoing series of artworks that envision a neobotanical future by resurrecting the paleobotanical past as a disruptor to the built environment - raising questions about how we plant, cultivate, build and restore.
The work began with axonometric drawings of botanical urban takeovers, mixing mediums that combine the gestural and immediate (brushed monoprints) with the deliberate and technical (pen and ink) as a way of testing the balance between the ephemeral and the persistent, the engineered and the organic.
Invention requires imagination, and the most recent work dreams of architecture that yields and integrates with megaflora in a dreamy continuum of transitory dwellings that help us mentally and physically weather great environmental transformation.
On Equisetum:
350 million years ago, horsetails (genus Equisetum) reached heights of 50-100 feet. These ancestors, called calamites, were a key species of the lush swamp forests that became coal deposits through milllenia of decomposition and alchemy. Ironically, these mammoth plants sequestered high levels of carbon from the atmosphere, creating an oxygen rich environment that could support humans. That same carbon is now being returned to the atmosphere by humans through the consumption of fossil fuel. Equisetum still exist today, though much smaller. They are uniquely resilient and thrive in nutrient poor soils created by human settlement.
Equisetum Returns is an ongoing series of artworks that envision a neobotanical future by resurrecting the paleobotanical past as a disruptor to the built environment - raising questions about how we plant, cultivate, build and restore.
The work began with axonometric drawings of botanical urban takeovers, mixing mediums that combine the gestural and immediate (brushed monoprints) with the deliberate and technical (pen and ink) as a way of testing the balance between the ephemeral and the persistent, the engineered and the organic.
Invention requires imagination, and the most recent work dreams of architecture that yields and integrates with megaflora in a dreamy continuum of transitory dwellings that help us mentally and physically weather great environmental transformation.
On Equisetum:
350 million years ago, horsetails (genus Equisetum) reached heights of 50-100 feet. These ancestors, called calamites, were a key species of the lush swamp forests that became coal deposits through milllenia of decomposition and alchemy. Ironically, these mammoth plants sequestered high levels of carbon from the atmosphere, creating an oxygen rich environment that could support humans. That same carbon is now being returned to the atmosphere by humans through the consumption of fossil fuel. Equisetum still exist today, though much smaller. They are uniquely resilient and thrive in nutrient poor soils created by human settlement.
Sumi ink, watercolor, and pen/india ink on watercolor paper. Prints are one-of-a-kind, not reproductions or reproducable.
1. ERMP #29, 12”x18” (Sumi ink only)
2. ERMP #8, 9”x12” (sold)
3. ERMP #28, 7”x11”
4. ERMP #27, 7”x11”
5. ERMP #6. 9”x12” (sold)
6. ERMP #23, 7”x11” (sold)
7. ERMP #21, 7”x11”
8. ERMP #11. 9”x12”
9. ERMP #13 9”x12”
10. ERMP #10, 9”x12” Currently exhibited at the Rue de Cerise in mid-September at the Good Arts Building: https://goodartsoncherry.com/shop/
11. ERMP #22, 7”x11” (sold)
12. ERMP #25 6”x12”
13. ERCB#1. India ink, watercolor, and etching. 9”x12” on Clayboard. (not for sale)
1. ERMP #29, 12”x18” (Sumi ink only)
2. ERMP #8, 9”x12” (sold)
3. ERMP #28, 7”x11”
4. ERMP #27, 7”x11”
5. ERMP #6. 9”x12” (sold)
6. ERMP #23, 7”x11” (sold)
7. ERMP #21, 7”x11”
8. ERMP #11. 9”x12”
9. ERMP #13 9”x12”
10. ERMP #10, 9”x12” Currently exhibited at the Rue de Cerise in mid-September at the Good Arts Building: https://goodartsoncherry.com/shop/
11. ERMP #22, 7”x11” (sold)
12. ERMP #25 6”x12”
13. ERCB#1. India ink, watercolor, and etching. 9”x12” on Clayboard. (not for sale)