For A Gathering of Flowers, funded by a Minnesota State Arts Artist Initiative Grant, I used the stunning botanical illustrations in the collections of the Wangensteen Historical Library and the Andersen Horticultural Library at the University of Minnesota as source material.
Translating these original illustrations into ceramic materials, I was able to capture, though the translucency and surface quality of glaze, some of the luminosity preserved in these rare books. Clay is a material which once fired will remain unchanged for tens of thousands of years. Using this enduring material, these tiles commemorate and preserve the image of endangered and threatened Minnesota wildflowers whose presence on this earth may be nearing its end.