The Wild Ones

The Wild Ones - Flora centers provincial, territorial, and national flowers - plants elevated to symbolic status yet often overlooked as living systems. Rendered as plastic building blocks, the flowers appear bright, permanent, and manufactured. This material language contrasts with their ecological reality: plants dependent on pollinators, seasonal cycles, intact soil, climate stability, and the pests they battle. Many carry long histories of medicinal, cultural, and ecological significance, particularly within Indigenous and local knowledge systems.This work sits at the intersection of my background in nature-based expressive arts therapy and my commitment to ecological storytelling. I'm interested in how painting can create space for reflection, for sitting with complexity rather than rushing toward solutions. These flowers speak to me because they carry dual identities: cherished symbols and overlooked organisms.