Upper School students in Science Teacher Laura Bradford’s Exploratory Botany class broadened their appreciation of plants with the first in a series of fun art projects. Bradford is constantly looking for creative ways to help her students overcome “plant blindness,” or plant awareness disparity, which is a tendency to overlook plants in our environment and undervalue their importance to ecosystems. “This project challenges students to become plant advocates through art,” says Bradford.
Bradford had the idea to showcase the intersection of creativity and environmental awareness last spring, and knew she needed help. “I’m a scientist, not an artist,” she laughed. She reached out to colleague Brooke Williams, Upper School Art Teacher. Williams was quick to offer support and provided supplies for Bradford to learn about and create botanical gelli prints over the summer.
Bradford quickly grew to love making botanical prints and introduced the project to her students early this semester, explaining the goals:
- Increase plant awareness: combat plant blindness by truly seeing and appreciating the botanical world around us.
- Artistic expression: develop technical skills in gelli plate printing while exploring the natural beauty of plant structures.
- Community impact: inspire the MICDS community to notice, value, and protect the plants that surround us daily.
- Reflective learning: connect artistic creation with deeper understanding of our relationship with the natural world.
“All of the pieces were created using leaves from our campus,” Bradford explains. She hung the works of art in the STEM hallway, outside a classroom, along with student reflections from the project.
Becca Frazier ’26 wrote, “One of my favorite plants was the lily pad that I used for the final shadow. I appreciate plants more after this by seeing each small vein on each plant, really seeing the life of the plants. I noticed plants in my day-to-day life before this project, but now, after doing the project, I started to look more at the unique shapes and sizes of each leaf or stalk.”
Diya Patel ’27 wrote, “While creating this gelli print, I changed the way I see and appreciate plants in the sense that there are so many different types of plants and why they are all special in their own way. Before this project, I only noticed the larger plants, such as trees, grass, and flowers, because those are what my eyes were attracted to. I did not realize the smaller plants within, such as the leaves on trees or flowers. I also had not noticed tinier plants and leaves that would grow elsewhere.”
“For my print, I used small leaves that were on yellow flowering plants because they were detailed, fern-like, and more delicate,” wrote Emerson Pook ’26. “I intended to highlight the balance between the delicate, smaller things and the larger, broader ones in this piece. The process and nature of gel printing itself highlights how, despite the differences, each plant still plays an irreplaceable part in a system, just as each layer does.”
Amalie Bryan ’26 wrote, “This project made me appreciate the little details in plants because the print allowed me to see every small detail. Now, when I walk past plants, I will wonder what they would look like if I printed them like I did in this project. Students and teachers should stop to appreciate the plants not just on campus but all around them daily to realize just how beautiful they are and everything they do for us.”
“These pieces highlight the true details of plants in the form of artwork, which allows the community to see plants in a different way that they might not have understood before,” said Jack Tipton ’26.
Well done, botanist artists!