{"id":6185,"date":"2010-06-08T09:00:01","date_gmt":"2010-06-08T13:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nybg.org\/wordpress\/?p=6185"},"modified":"2010-06-08T11:03:57","modified_gmt":"2010-06-08T15:03:57","slug":"slow-art-is-like-slow-food%e2%80%94it%e2%80%99s-for-the-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/2010\/06\/learning\/slow-art-is-like-slow-food%e2%80%94it%e2%80%99s-for-the-soul\/","title":{"rendered":"Slow Art Is Like Slow Food\u2014It\u2019s for the Soul"},"content":{"rendered":"

See Life More Leisurely Through Botanical Illustration Study<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/td>\nRose Marie James is an instructor in the Garden\u2019s Botanical Art and Illustration program.<\/span><\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\"\"<\/a>What started me thinking about what I call \u201cslow art\u201d is my affinity for \u201cslow food\u201d (I must confess to a McDonald\u2019s fix on occasion). Engaging in the preparation of food is a more meaningful experience for me than driving through a pick-up window or popping something into the microwave.<\/p>\n

Knowing what a bean looks like before it gets cut up, handling a whole head of lettuce that needs washing and tearing into bite-size pieces, trimming the greens and roots from a beet before cooking remind me that I am connected to and rely on plants to thrive. Additionally, eating food that is carefully prepared is both satisfying and delicious.<\/p>\n

That same kind of connection between process and result is the reason I love working as a botanical artist, and have, therefore, come to see it as \u201cslow art.\u201d<\/p>\n

It contrasts with the work I have done as a graphic designer in promotional advertising, where everything has to be done in a hurry. Using the computer to this purpose just amplifies the frenzy, leaving time for little but making things look good.<\/p>\n

Technology speeds us through more information than we can possibly absorb. (I, myself, own three iPods, three computers, and a cell phone.) Yet, we have come to be lost without them. Alternately, botanical illustration gives me time to reflect, and I am drawn to the fulfillment I feel when creating it. It slows me down.<\/p>\n

Producing a piece of botanical art requires the artist to study the subject carefully, to learn how it grows, how it reproduces, and how it nourishes itself. Discovering these details, the grace and genius inherent in a plant\u2019s anatomy, and transforming it into art brings us back to the real world growing around us.<\/p>\n

Traditional drawing methods used by artists for centuries further slows the process. Pencils, paint, paper, eyes, and hands are the tools used to create the work. And, like \u201cslow food,\u201d the process becomes as important as the result. Slow art requires time. It is not created in a heartbeat or the click of a mouse. Just as \u201cslow food\u201d nourishes the body, botanical art, slow art, nourishes the soul.<\/p>\n

I will be teaching Drawing<\/a> at the Botanical Garden\u2019s new Midtown Education Center this August. I hope you will attend and discover a love of botanical illustration, or what I like to think of as \u201cslow art.\u201d<\/p>\n

Register now<\/a> for Rose Marie James\u2019 courses and other Botanical Art and Illustration offerings.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

See Life More Leisurely Through Botanical Illustration Study Rose Marie James is an instructor in the Garden\u2019s Botanical Art and Illustration program. What started me thinking about what I call \u201cslow art\u201d is my affinity for \u201cslow food\u201d (I must confess to a McDonald\u2019s fix on occasion). Engaging in the preparation of food is a… <\/p>\n

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