Wednesday, June 26, 2013

A Little Background


I love nature in the city.



Plants push up from cracks in the sidewalk.



They take over buildings.



Intrepid


Persistent



Undeterred by concrete



Slowly covering everything



Spilling out towards the street. 
I had learned of some artists in Toronto who were making plant walls by tearing posters



I wanted to play around with a similar idea. I grew plants from cuttings of some very easygoing houseplants. I made planters from FedEx envelopes which I stapled to the construction wall. 



They were taken before I could get a better picture of them than this. I was glad the plants found homes, that was my ultimate intention. I just would have liked them to hang out a little longer.



The next time, I hung the plants a little higher around my neighborhood in Bushwick, where there is not much nature.



Perhaps the plants blended in too well because only a few were adopted.



Then I heard about two other Canadian artists, Caroline Macfarlane and Vanessa Nicholas. They would paint abandoned bicycles to brighten up the streets. Their project was called The Good Bike Project. My attention was drawn to the plant in the bicycle's basket. I thought to use New York's abandoned bicycles as plant stands.



Again the plants within each were adopted rather quickly. I think I have found a way of fixing the plants so that they could eventually be taken, but it would take a while for a someone to have a penknife and spend the time cutting them free. 



It is a theory I will test in the next few weeks.