Part of a 3 part series of small quilted works that reference plants and the meanings associated with plants. Hand embroidery and quilting techniques, natural dye with indigo, marigold and lac, batik with black wax on lac dyed cotton.

The passion flowers name references the Passions of the Christ and was named by missionaries. Because a passion flower often has 5 petals this association was made. There are other very colonialist, christian based interpretations of plants and their properties that have always brought questions to my mind. Such as why are all names latin based, don’t other cultures have their own interpretation and story associated with the categorization or interpretation of biology. Why was this ignore, why is latin based learning given hierarchy?

When I started reading the book “Braiding Sweetgrass” it opened up a door into plant knowledge that valued story and relationships, not just classification or forcing Jesus into the conversation.