Avant Gardener: A Creative Exploration of Imperiled Species

Lisa D. Watson

Sound Art by Eric Chasalow

Coastal Discovery Museum – Main Gallery

November 1, 2022 – February 26, 2023

EVENTS:
Reception: Thursday, November 3 from 5-7pm
Artist Talk: Wednesday, November 16 at 2:30
Art-full Seeding Workshop: Thursday, December 1 from 5-7pm

LECTURES:
Chris Hernandez, US Fish and Wildlife
Butterflies and Beyond: Pollinator Conservation in the Lowcountry
Wednesday, November 2 at 2:30

Lisa Lord, Longleaf Alliance
Plant Communities of the Longleaf Pine Ecosystem
Wednesday, November 30 at 2:30pm

Lisa D. Watson
The Seven Plant Blunders of Our Coast:
Basics on Invasive Plant Species and Alternative Native Solutions
Wednesday, January 25 at 2:30

*Reception is free and open to the public. Reservations required for all other events.

Hilton Head Island, SC – Lisa D. Watson is an artist and a gardener. Her concern with human sprawl fuses with her love for plants and animals in her artwork, pushing her to create multilayered work that sparks a deeper awareness of human impact on nature. Since 2019, with the help of biologists, rangers, and regional naturalists, she has ventured into the surrounding landscapes of the Southeast to study endangered, threatened, and rare plants.

In Avant Gardener: A Creative Exploration of Imperiled Species, she probes how loss of habitat, sprawl, chemical spraying, invasive exotic species, and poachers are changing native habitats into unhealthy and unsustainable lands. In the past, botanical illustrations were used by scientists and physicians for classification. What once was documented as discoveries, Watson feels an urgency to pay homage to before they disappear.

Watson’s materials are also essential to her process. She notes, “I cannot fully express the story of our remaining fragile environments without incorporating an art practice of reusing materials to prevent waste and unnecessary consumption. Industrial wood scrap becomes my canvas. Shredded documents and security envelopes transform into lush foliage and textured landscapes.”

The exhibition will be accompanied by composer Eric Chasalow’s What Shade of Green is Our Horizon? The 42-minute aural land and seascape was composed for Avant Gardener after Lisa and Eric met at an artist’s residency at The Studios of Key West in 2022.