Home Studies in Nature 2004-2006
Home Studies in Nature departed from the work and in particular a text about carnivorous plants written by a self-taught nineteenth-century natural historian, Mary Treat. I came across Treat while reading Darwin’s correspondence. Her discoveries were taken seriously and credited by Darwin, although she received little acknowledgment in general during her lifetime, since as a woman it was impossible for her to have an academic position.
Treat had a menagerie in her backyard in New Jersey where she grew carnivorous plants, performed experiments on them and wrote articles and eventually a book, "Home Studies in Nature," based on her findings. The text is passionate, melancholy and somewhat troubled. Without the plant names, one would think one was reading about difficult human relationships—between individuals, extended families and warring nations. I used Treat’s text to generate my drawings and paintings—focusing on her descriptions and adhering to the sort of actions or dynamics they suggest, rather than illustrating the actual events or objects she describes. That is, I was interested in the way her descriptions, when removed from the context of their botanical life, could create images of a macro scale that evoked the sense of a world made up of very specific systems, players, climates and inclinations.
For my project I divided Treat’s text into three components to create three different kinds of drawings and paintings: The first were her descriptions of parts of particular plants. These are conceived within the genre of the portrait; the second were descriptions of what she observed under the microscope, presented as still lives; the third were major events that occurred over periods of time—insects being sucked in, attempting escape, coming back for more deadly nectar, being devoured and eventually turned into protein. These are the largest scale works, conceived as history paintings.
To help me live fully inside the world of the plants, I grew in my studio all the same species that Treat grew, studied them under the microscope, and generated drawings from these two activities. In addition, I went on a series of expeditions to observe carnivorous plants in the wild. The exhibition of this project included an installation of carnivorous plants in terrariums with sculptures made from dead plants and insects, a video and drawings in one room, and large paintings in another room.
“For several years past I have devoted much time to a class of plants that seem to have reversed the regular order of nature, and, like avengers of their kingdom, have turned upon animals, incarcerating and finally killing them. Whether the plants are really hungry and entrap the animals for food, or whether it is only an example of the wanton destructiveness of nature I leave the reader to judge.” —Mary Treat 1885
Treat had a menagerie in her backyard in New Jersey where she grew carnivorous plants, performed experiments on them and wrote articles and eventually a book, "Home Studies in Nature," based on her findings. The text is passionate, melancholy and somewhat troubled. Without the plant names, one would think one was reading about difficult human relationships—between individuals, extended families and warring nations. I used Treat’s text to generate my drawings and paintings—focusing on her descriptions and adhering to the sort of actions or dynamics they suggest, rather than illustrating the actual events or objects she describes. That is, I was interested in the way her descriptions, when removed from the context of their botanical life, could create images of a macro scale that evoked the sense of a world made up of very specific systems, players, climates and inclinations.
For my project I divided Treat’s text into three components to create three different kinds of drawings and paintings: The first were her descriptions of parts of particular plants. These are conceived within the genre of the portrait; the second were descriptions of what she observed under the microscope, presented as still lives; the third were major events that occurred over periods of time—insects being sucked in, attempting escape, coming back for more deadly nectar, being devoured and eventually turned into protein. These are the largest scale works, conceived as history paintings.
To help me live fully inside the world of the plants, I grew in my studio all the same species that Treat grew, studied them under the microscope, and generated drawings from these two activities. In addition, I went on a series of expeditions to observe carnivorous plants in the wild. The exhibition of this project included an installation of carnivorous plants in terrariums with sculptures made from dead plants and insects, a video and drawings in one room, and large paintings in another room.
“For several years past I have devoted much time to a class of plants that seem to have reversed the regular order of nature, and, like avengers of their kingdom, have turned upon animals, incarcerating and finally killing them. Whether the plants are really hungry and entrap the animals for food, or whether it is only an example of the wanton destructiveness of nature I leave the reader to judge.” —Mary Treat 1885