The Alien Aesthetic
May 7, 2018
Patterson Clark turns invasive plants into art.
As a volunteer for the National Park Service, he got an idea: “One day, when I was pulling a plant, I thought, how can I change my relationship with this plant so that it’s not just eradication, taking something’s life? Since then, I’ve been harvesting invasive plants, rather than just killing them.”
Check out his work here and watch him make paper on Voice of America.
“What is being lost? The answer is easy. A precious and irreplaceable part of Florida’s, and the nation’s, heritage is disappearing. Plants, animals, and entire ecosystems that took tens of thousands to millions of years to evolve are at risk. What is being gained in their place? A hodgepodge of species found in other parts of the world. . . . Florida is being homogenized, and everyone, for all time to come, will be the poorer for it.”
—E. O. Wilson, in his foreword to Strangers in Paradise: Impact and Management of Nonindigenous Species in Florida