Artist Highlight

We first gather plants from our favorite spots in the Boone and Asheville area, like Pisgah National Forest, Bent Creek, Big Ivy, and even the back yard. Any leaf or flower with defined vein structures will work well. Among the tried and true are queen anne's lace, christmas fern, dogwood, tulip poplar, fig, grape, goldenrod,  yarrow, sycamore, sassafras, and wine berry.

In the studio we hand form a slab and begin to press the plants in with pony rollers, creating a symmetrcal or abstract motif like the piece above. For me this is where the magic happens, grooving to some beautiful music or silent meditation, the creative flow unfolds like for a musician or painter, in this case through the plants, the artist, and the unraveling of an unknown design from a piece of earth.