Invasive Species Of The Hudson Valley. No. 19. Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana).

This series is grounded in the lineage of the botanical cyanotype, but its subjects are plants that

are invasive in the area where I live and work, the Hudson Valley in Upstate New York. Because

of human activity, these plants were all introduced, either deliberately or accidentally into an

area where they had never previously existed and have thrived, out-competing the native plants,

and thus reducing biodiversity. One day a visitor pointed out to me a large plant that was in fact

Japanese Knotweed, which is extremely invasive. As I was looking for ways to document

adverse human impacts on the environment I thought invasive plants would make an interesting

subject, since I did not need to travel to some exotic landscape - they are all around us. I began

to use elements from the environment of the plants, such as water from the Hudson River, to

interact with the Cyanotype chemistry, thus creating an expressionistic feel to the work that

alludes to the horror of our destruction of the biosphere.