Frank Walton
Botanical Art
"There is not a 'fragment' in all nature, for every relative fragment of one thing is a full harmonious unit in itself." John Muir
I have been making, finding, documenting, and sharing images my whole life. (And I like keeping my fingernails dirty while gardening.)
The images that have been most important to me have always been of Nature (botany, landscape, zoology).
I have worked 40+ years in professional communications, and many of my assignments have related to seeing -- and imagining for the future —Nature -- the thriving landscape. I have worked for municipal public spaces, for global forestry organizations, for historic preservation organizations, for world-class arts institutions -- all concerned with depictions, and the meaning and health of the landscape.
Along with acquiring a Ph.D. in Literature and an M.S. in Landscape Design, I have also studied botanical art at the New York Botanical Garden and studied drawing and painting at Parsons School of Design and The Art Students League of New York. I have studied horticulture and botany at the New York York Botanical Garden, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and the Berkshire Botanical Garden.
I am an active volunteer public guide at the Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge, Massachusetts and a “seasonal” part-time employee (in my “semi-retirement”) at Windy Hill Farm Nursery and Garden Center in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
Botanical art is NOT mauve painted violets on English tea china. Botanical art is the most meaningful (symbolic-laden) category of representational art from all world cultures. Botanical art is about structure, life, survival, architecture, sex organs and seduction, interspecies cooperation, communication -- and life. Botanical art is energetic, strong, and changes how you look at the world.
Contact me at franklin.walton@gmail.com
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