Painting with invasive pigments

Abstract

In the abandoned lots of the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY, dandelion, black nightshade, and dozens of other weedy plants thrive. Although some see hotbeds of invasive species, artist and Brooklyn local Ellie Irons sees a vibrant urban ecosystem. She also sees the makings of a unique color palette. Artist Ellie Irons creates watercolor paints by extracting pigments from weedy urban plants. In Dot Cluster: Wild Plants Common in New York City , 2016, she uses those paints to describe the community of plants growing across about 25 vacant lots in Brooklyn. Image courtesy of Ellie Irons. Irons extracts pigments from these weeds—or as she calls them, “spontaneous urban plants”—and transforms them into watercolor paints. She then paints diagrams and maps out plant species. Through this Invasive Pigments project, her works detail the spread of plants on scales ranging from continents to city blocks. In Asiatic Dayflower (C. communis) , 2012, for example, a global map shows splashes of blue extracted from petals marking the plant’s geographic range overlaid with delicately sketched leaves and stems depicting the species’ movement from Asia to Europe and eventually the United States. In Asiatic Dayflower: Wildflower/Superweed , 2014, she shows the distribution of the same plant on a single city block. About one quarter of the weeds in Irons’ color palette are native to the northeastern United States. The rest are introduced, often highly invasive plants—some of which the city is actively working to eradicate from forested areas. Such efforts are undertaken for good reason; invasive species spread can devastate an ecosystem. But Irons believes urban ecosystems are different. After all, many native plants couldn’t survive the harsh conditions. Where native plants fail, hardy weedy plants, she reasons, can step up to provide a wealth of ecosystem services—from stabilizing soil and reducing nutrient and …