wisdom of the living world
Lisa’s new work focuses on the botanical world, specifically extant species from the ancient plant kingdom. Plants have perfected their morphology to thrive in their habitats. Their structures have transmogrified to efficiently and consistently make food and transport nutrients. These investigations will be developed further using rapid prototyping with experiments using lignan and brassicas.
At the start of the pandemic in 2020, I became deeply interested in the idea of survival and adaptation, and have been reading and researching the botanical world for edification since. My connection to nature has been at the root of many of my past works, both artistically and architecturally, and biomimicry has been an integral part of my research, experiments and projects. So as I started to really dig into the idea of survival and adaptation, I naturally gravitated towards the natural world.
Darwin’s Abominable Mystery, acrylic on canvas, 48” x 48”
The focus of this painting is on a scraggly understory shrub with inconspicuous flowers, the Amborella trichopoda. Its humble appearance is at odds with its important place in evolution. How it survived from the Cretaceous Period to now, and the potential influence it had on flowering plants, completely fascinates me.
A world without flowers is hard to imagine, and yet, this was the case for hundreds of millions of years here on earth. About 140 million years ago, flowering plants, also called angiosperms, appeared and rapidly eclipsed the diversity of other plants, namely gymnosperms. How angiosperms diversified and spread so swiftly is one of Botany’s enduring questions. Evolutionarily speaking, the speed of angiosperm diversification is such that some scientists refer to it as a kind of floral “Big Bang.” It is likely the Amborella Trichopoda is the closest living relative to the first flowering plant and a missing link between angiosperms and gymnosperms.
Using my personal research and the incredibly edifying conversations I had with Botanists around the country, I started metaphorically dissecting the aspects of this plant - its morphology, pollinating practices, adaptations, transmutations, and photosynthetic processes - down to its cellular structure while mapping and documenting each part in layers of paint and composition on my canvas. Through this process, along with drawing and experiments, I am interested in connecting with and understanding this plant and other ancient botanicals so as to celebrate their history, their story and to bring forth potential solutions to existing complex human problems.
A Perfected Architecture, acrylic on canvas, 48” x 48”
The focus of my next investigation for the Wisdom of the Living World series was the majestic Victoria Amazonica.
Victoria’s unique biology and architecture is most compelling - every aspect of this plant’s architecture contributes to the growth and survival of it - it has massive, structural water-platters that grow more than six feet in diameter through the fractal branching of its underlying structure. These large spine-covered girders radiate out from the leaf stalk and then systems of smaller girders cross at right angles. This structure is not rigid but flexible enough to give elastic support.
Victoria flowers for two nights – each night revealing a different set of female to male characteristics. The first night the flower’s female characteristics are dominant, and it’s fragrant flower gives off heat, which attracts pollinators. There they spend one night, covering themselves in water lily pollen and then fly off to another flower to continue the life cycle. On the second day, the giant lily becomes a male pollen producer, and that evening the chamber opens and the pollinators fly away to other Victoria plants.
I used the same process for this painting as for Darwin’s Abominable Mystery, but began documenting each layer so as to use it in the creation of a three dimensional structure that celebrates the plant and all its functions, in biomimetic fashion. This will be further developed with additive manufacturing technology.