An Invitation to Notice

I paint wild plants and medicinal herbs. I find them fascinating. Each one contains layers of meaning accumulated through generations of human use, folklore, songs, stories, and symbolic language. 

Inspired by both 19th-century botanical illustrations and the circular structure of mandalas, I arrange plants in compositions where roots form the center, while stems, leaves, and flowers twist outward. I think of these structures as “chaos mandalas.”

Many of my paintings incorporate fragments of text drawn from recipes, written folk traditions, historical and contemporary plant-medicine references, and personal reflections. My artmaking process begins with research into the historical uses and symbolism of particular plants, but often grows to include my own thoughts on healing, resilience, and the act of observing the world around me.

An Invitation to Notice includes paintings inspired by herbal recipes for staying healthy through the winter, sharpening the mind, and rekindling joy and connection in everyday life. One example is “Specimens 10: Red Clover, Plantain, Daisy Fleabane, Cinquefoil, Jewelweed,” a painting based on the plants growing in my own driveway. They are easy to overlook, but once I identified them and began paying attention, each plant revealed a surprisingly rich history of folklore and medicinal use. 

For example, Red Clover, a common, often overlooked wildflower, was sacred to ancient Greeks, Romans, Celtics, and Druids, with its three-lobed leaves symbolizing the triad goddesses. Clover is also a symbol for prosperity. The phrase “to live in clover,” coined in 1773 by the British writer Samuel Johnson, means to live luxuriously; the plant was a  delicious and fattening food source for cattle. Used as a cover crop to add nutrients to the soil, Red Clover also helps humans absorb nutrients from other foods, so what it brings to the land, it brings to us. It is currently being studied for its positive effects on cholesterol in pre- and post-menopausal women, and may add flexibility to arteries, prevent blood clots, improve blood flow, and even provide psychological benefits. My notes on Red Clover go on and on; I find this kind of rabbit hole so inviting.

The paintings that result from this kind of research remind me to slow down, remain curious, and reconnect with the living world that surrounds us.

— Margaret Shipman

Artwork Images