BEAUTIFUL FLOWER MURAL SPROUTS FROM JERSEY CITY’S 20 STORY SKYLINE
Urban spaces are not known for a place filled with wildflowers, however what can be more beautiful than combining the beauty of nature to urban life. This is the goal of the San Francisco-based artist Mona Caron who is creating massive murals of plant life. This gorgeous creation is part of her ongoing WEEDS series.
Her latest addition was commissioned by the Jersey City Mural Arts Program and features a 20-story mural of a flower that sprouts from the Jersey City skyline. The piece depicts a plant that is native to the site called Eutrochium.
Caron captured every detail of the wildflower as she placed it against a stark black background which enhances the beautiful red-and-green palette of the plant. In this way, the format of the painting recalls vintage botanical illustrations.
“I’m calling the piece Shauquethqueat’s Eutrochium. It is not actually a weed but a wildflower native to this area. It turns out that the common name of this Eutrochium purpureum I painted—Joe Pye Weed—refers to the western name of a Native American healer of the 19th century, who is said to have utilized this plant in phytotherapy. His Mohican name is transcribed as Shauquethqueat.
“This anecdote works well with the questions I always like to raise with my WEEDS series, regarding what belongs to the land and what doesn’t, who is invading and what is at home, in addition to thoughts about ways to overcome, to resist, to reconquer what has been lost and damaged through western human intervention.