Interview
10 Questions for an Artist Who Grows Her Own Pigments
Ellie Irons explains how she mindfully harvests plants and transforms them into paints, a labor of love detailed in her how-to guide Feral Hues.
Ellie Irons
Art
How Can Ecological Artists Move Beyond Aesthetic Gestures?
If art is to be relevant to the environment, it needs to move beyond an art context to engage with the land itself.
Art
A Group Show Rooted in Weeds
At Goldfinch gallery in Chicago, an exhibition pays homage to the plant species that thrive amid the city’s concrete plots.
Art
Extracting a Rainbow of Color from Invasive Plants
Every once in a while I see a show that makes me feel good, even hopeful about this overheated, self-aggrandizing, status-obsessed art scene in New York. Chroma Botanica: Ellie Irons & Linda Stillman was such an exhibition for me.
Interview
An Ecologically Minded Artist Navigating the Nature-Culture Continuum
In recent years, my interest has grown in how art can help tackle the environmental devastation of our planet. During that time, I've begun following the artist and educator Ellie Irons, both for her work and her thinking.
Art
Painting with the City's Invasive Plants
Many of the native plants in New York have been pushed out of the city's concrete expanses, but that's not to say the boroughs don't have a botanic profile. Artist Ellie Irons has spent three summers cultivating and creating pigments from the invasive plant species that have taken root in vacant lot