Julie Farstad
@therealjuliefarstad
@FlowersForMarlborough
Artist Statement
In recent years, my artwork has developed into two related bodies of work: the Flowers For Marlborough project and the Wildflower Revolution series. Both of these groups of artwork center and celebrate the remarkable beauty and function of native plants. Flowers For Marlborough is a public facing project in which I paint large acrylic paintings of native plants on the boarded up windows of vacant buildings, as well as on public structures, in the blighted neighborhood of Marlborough, Kansas City, where I live. This project, done with permission from the properties’ owners or the city, seeks to call attention to the environmental and urban decay of my neighborhood that was once lush prairie. I want to introduce the formal and purposeful beauty of native plants to my neighbors, as well as offer a kind of psychological relief to my community who face the effects of living in the ugly aftermath of Kansas City’s racist policy of redlining. As part of this project, I winter sow native plant seedlings to give away to my neighbors in the spring, so they can experience the joy of living with the plants and the amazing pollinators they host. I also do painting workshops with neighborhood families, teaching them about the importance of native plants and using art as a way to create a communal appreciation for them. The Wildflower Revolution series is a body of oil on panel paintings that extend my obsession with the flowering plants of the tallgrass prairie. Using layers of saturated glazes to build up tightly rendered blossoms layered on top of each other, my paintings re-present the richly biodiverse ecosystem of the prairie. I want the viewer to observe and fall in love with native plants, so they will want to save them too. As one living in the Anthropocene, I spend my nights awake, anxiously ruminating over the coming tragedies, and my days following a joyful curiosity about these wonderful flowers. I feel my works dwell in this paradoxical intensity as both requiems for the lost prairie and incantations for hope.