The Botanical Series explores and celebrates specific ecosystems, drawing from the specificity of place through direct impressions of native plant life and layered ceramic surfaces. These works honor the symbolism of plants both in contemporary contexts and ancient cultures- translating their forms into tactile compositions that reflect resilience, interconnectedness, and the living language of the landscape.
The Botanical Urn Series expands to include native, invasive, and cultivated plant species, using each as both material and message. Pressed and embedded directly onto the exterior of handmade ceramic urns these plants create a layered record of ecological presence to reveal the tensions between what belongs, what disrupts, and what is human-introduced. In this context, the urn becomes a powerful symbolic form: historically tied to containment, memory, and mortality, it holds not only the idea of human life, but also the fragility and transience of entire ecosystems.
More info and photos here: https://www.kalastein.com/portfolio/botanical-urn-series
