Rosa blanda takes a page from the Chicago Academy of Science’s herbarium collection, in which pressed plants form a record of shifting plant communities within the city. This rose was collected in the Ravenswood area in 1890, provoking the neighborhood’s ecological past. The composition engages with the work of Gherardo Cibo, an Italian herbalist who painted plants with backgrounds implying their habitats and uses. Rosa blanda employs the same composition- al strategy, but juxtaposes the present environment with the past embodied in the rose.

Watercolor & gouache, 12”x16”, matted for a 16x20” frame (frame not included)