Montgomery Botanical Residency, Miami

Artist Residency

In February of 2025, I completed a sixteen day residency at the Montgomery Botanical Center in Miami, Florida. During my residency, I completed 12 gouache and 16 oil paintings, all completed on location, from observation. This series arises out of my conceptual interest in the intersection of arts and science, building on ideas of conservation psychology–the study of promoting activism. Recording nature in paint is a form of documentation embedded with emotional connection and the potential to function as a catalyst for motivating action. I see my role as an artist to help bridge the gap between societal issues and individual response, to inspire community connection and encourage active participation. 

The series has two distinct parts; one set of paintings were done in oil and focus on the botanical scenes and landscape of the gardens, the others are gouache sketches capturing the behind the scenes activity of the people who run the gardens and complete the research. The goal of my oil paintings is representation of the unique biodiversity of this garden (14,000+ plants on the grounds with an additional 10,000+ plants in the nursery). My gouache paintings focus on the human aspects of the garden’s maintenance: the botanists, groundskeepers, and facilities. This series will share the many different stories of these people who contribute so much to society but are often hidden from view. As my series expands to gardens in other cities, I will be highlighting the connection between communities and strengthening the shared goals of conservation efforts. 

At the Botanical Center, I was able to shadow the different staff members and learn directly from them about their research efforts, including a brand new program researching laboratory techniques cultivating plants from tissue cultures. I was able to share my work with all the staff and volunteer team on the final day of my residency with an exhibit and reception in the historic Nell House. I will continue partnering with the center by creating an art book of this collection along with text provided by the Research Center which will be a way to document this project and share the work with a larger audience. This book will also be used by the garden for education and donor gratitude.

Montgomery Botanical Center is the living legacy of Robert and Nell Montgomery, widely known as the founders of Fairchild Tropical Garden. Housed on their 120-acre Coral Gables estate, it included the largest and finest private collections of palms and cycads in the world. As a living tribute to her late husband, in 1959 Nell created The Montgomery Foundation, Inc.—later renamed the Montgomery Botanical Center—as an independent, nonprofit institution devoted to advancing the science of tropical botany.

The mission of the Montgomery Botanical Center is to advance science, education, conservation, and horticultural knowledge of tropical plants, emphasizing palms and cycads, and to exemplify excellent botanical garden design. Through this mission, the Montgomery Botanical Center endeavors to make the Montgomery name known and respected throughout the world in the field of plant science.

The Montgomery Botanical Center carries out its mission by collecting seeds from wild populations of palms and cycads from around the world. Montgomery then germinates these seeds in its nursery and grows the resulting plants in population-based, documented, scientific collections in its extensive garden pursuant to excellent botanical garden design. Montgomery fosters and participates in scientific research by collecting and maintaining scientific data on its collections, making its collections and scientific data available to scientists for research purposes, and disseminating this research and data through scientific and popular publications. Montgomery cooperates with many botanical institutions and countries around the world by making its plant collections, knowledge, and expertise available to their scientists, educators, and students. The Montgomery Botanical Center staff also explain the mission and operations to the general public through workshops, lectures, publications, and tours of the plant collections.

The Montgomery Botanical Center’s well-documented, wild-collected, population-based, tropical plant collections are extraordinary in their scientific, educational, and conservation value—and the botanical garden that contains those collections is extraordinary in its design and beauty.