A great closing to a great time at Open Source gallery

Now that we’ve had a breather after our breathless and beautiful residency at South Slope’s Open Source, I want to start sharing images and footage of what we did there for those who couldn’t make it – and also for those who did visit and contribute, but want to revisit! This [...]

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Our residency at Open Source has begun!

Urban Plant Research’s first New York exhibition and residency began last Saturday at Open Source Gallery in Brooklyn! It kicked off with an opening party filled with friends, neighbors, fellow artists and plant lovers, pizza and beer.

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Brooklyn: Urban Plant Videos!

On July 12, in the high noon sun, I caught sight of a plant living down below the street, underneath the subway grates at 9th Street and 6th Avenue.

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Brooklyn: Climbing plants (in and out of control)

With the ivy-graffiti still on my mind, I’d like to share some more amazing instances of climbing plants I’ve discovered in Park Slope. This photograph that I took a little while ago, with its lush, dark ivy, reminds me of Leslie’s photograph of Juncker’s Hotel Garni, minus the beautiful way the ivy flows into windowboxes.

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Brooklyn: Ivy-graffiti, revisited

Last fall, I was impressed by the multi-colored transformation of ivy on the side of a building above the Prospect Highway, which outdid the artistry of the graffiti underneath it. To my dismay, I recently discovered that the ivy has been cut back and entirely removed from the lower part of the wall, leaving a [...]

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Brooklyn: Garden space

My roommate Phyllis working in her vegetable garden in the overgrown garden in our backyard. Bird’s eye view.

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Brooklyn: Mystery plant grows right through chain link fence

On a walk through Gowanus yesterday, at Union St. and 4th Ave., I was attracted by this monster of a weed because of its billowing, large shape and its adjacency to two other interesting things: a billboard and a vacant lot.

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New York trees wear urban tumbleweeds

Speaking of “urban tumbleweeds,” a.k.a. plastic bags and other trash blown through the city, I began to notice back in early spring just how many street trees have some kind of trash caught in them. It’s probably not so apparent now that the trees have grown their full summer coat of foliage, but back then [...]

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Brooklyn: More on plants in the nighttime

Last summer I ruminated about whether urban plants are able to “sleep” in the presence of street lamps. (It sure is difficult for those of us humans with a light shining right into our window!) My mind came back to this question as I was taking a few more pictures of plants at night. Above, [...]

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Brooklyn: Plants making shapes

If a plant was trying to talk to you, would you know it? Would you be able to decipher the message?
As I passed a giant spread of ivy covering the chain-link fence along Prospect Ave. (betw. 5th + 6th Aves), I noticed shapes made by the ivy in its in-between spaces. Might these shapes be [...]

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