For generations, communities around the world have cultivated intimate, reciprocal relationships with medicinal plants, deeply linked with spiritual transcendence, health, memory, and identity. Yet these same plants, once central to collective well-being and knowledge systems, have been systematically demonized, extracted, and commodified. This body of work investigates the historic and ongoing stigmatization of ancestral plant medicine as a means of social control, beginning with colonial invasions and extending into the structures of pharmaceutical power and academic gatekeeping.
This exhibition traces the suppression of botanical knowledge as a tool of domination, where plants were not only outlawed, but their keepers silenced and exploited. From the labeling of sacred medicines as “witchcraft,” to the corporate patenting of traditional remedies, these works reflect on how entire epistemologies were discredited to centralize authority, extract resources, and disrupt cultural continuity.
Through a hybrid of materials, symbols, and research, I reclaim the aesthetic and spiritual presence of these plants, honoring the wisdom carriers, who have risked and continue to risk persecution, for safeguarding their healing traditions. This is not just about plants; it is about power, ancestral memory, and the survival of entire worldviews.
Through my art, I want to invite viewers to look beyond fear and stereotypes and to see these plants and fungi in a new light, one that respects their cultural roots and recognizes their healing properties, rightfully crediting the knowledge of the communities that have been protecting them and using them correctly for centuries. It’s about remembering what was lost, challenging who gets to decide what is “legitimate”, and celebrating the resilience of first nations and ancestral knowledge.
Various yarns over tufting backing and felt
30” x 23.75” x 0.75”
Various yarns over tufting backing and felt
27.75” x 12.25” 1”
Various yarns over tufting backing and felt
29” x 16” x 0.75”
Various yarns over tufting backing and felt
21” x 10” x 0.75”
Various yarns over tufting backing and felt
29” x 14.25” x 0.75"
Various yarns over tufting backing and felt
29” x 7” x 0.75”
Various yarns over tufting backing and felt
26” x 18” x 0.75”
Various yarns over tufting backing and felt
27” x 11” x 0.75”
Various yarns over tufting backing and felt
21” x 19” x 0.75”
Various yarns over tufting backing and felt
28” x 15” x 0.75”
Ipomoea tricolor / Morning Glory / Tlililtzin (2025)
Various yarns over tufting backing and felt
23.5” x 21” x 0.75”
Digital Illustration for Vinyl