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.
