At the Brandywine Museum of Art, This Earthen Door exhibition by Amanda Marchand and Leah Sobsey brings the vibrant colors of the Waterloo Mills Preserve to life, writes Julia Shipley for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
The two artists first visited the preserve last summer and returned two more times to gather leaves and twigs from its native trees and plants.
These include chokecherry, flowering dogwood, sassafras, and tulip poplar, as well as invasive species such as Norway maple.
Guided by the spirit of poet Emily Dickinson, who assembled a herbarium of over 400 plant specimens more than two centuries ago, they chose to reconstruct her book. Among the plants they collected and identified, 66 were featured in Dickinson’s album.
Using 19th-century ink-paint making and solar printing techniques, the pair then transformed the dried plants into artworks.
This Earthen Door: Nature as Muse and Material presents the finished pieces, honoring both the museum and the Brandywine Conservancy, which facilitated protection of 70,200 acres in the region as open space, including the Waterloo Mills Preserve.
The exhibit runs through Sept. 7.
Read more about Amanda Marchand and Leah Sobsey using a variety of outdoor media to create their art in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
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