Our Botanical Bodies started as a body painting project in 2017. My initial aim of this project was to draw attention to the interconnectedness between our bodies and plants, and to show appreciation for how varied our bodies are, in the same way that we tend to show appreciation for how varied plant life is. This project then developed into a series of commissioned personalised botanical body drawings on paper. Finding solace through these drawings also highlighted to me another similarity we share with plant life - our ability to wither and bloom, to wilt and flourish and to adapt and grow. I hope these drawings can point to this comfort too.

“When you go out into the woods, and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever. And you look at the tree and you allow it. You see why it is the way it is. You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light, and so it turned that way. And you don’t get all emotional about it. You just allow it. You appreciate the tree. The minute you get near humans, you lose all that. And you are constantly saying ‘You are too this, or I’m too this.’ That judgment mind comes in. And so I practice turning people into trees. Which means appreciating them just the way they are.” - Ram Dass