OnlyInTheForest foraged botanical art

I'm Sadie, a biophilic consultant and artist.

All of my work, no matter what media I am working in, begins with an immersion, a touch, in the natural world, no matter how small or short. Hand foraged botanicals, insects, or animal remains set in resin, highlighting the complexity, fragility, changeability, and subtle intensity of this world, a world that my species, over the past few hundred years, have extracted ourselves from; declared ourselves separate and apart. While I am experimenting with rendering the ephemeral permanent, I witness the tumult of a rapidly changing world; processes that my species recklessly set in motion. Cyanotypes, or sunprints, capture the shadows of plants set in rays of the same sun that have sustained them their whole lives. Resined collages evoke the Victorian genre of the diorama, since resin allows, with various layers, a three-dimensionality that can effectively communicate passing time. Many pieces incorporate the same plant in different phases (flowering, going to seed, dying), and insects in different life stages (pupa and adults), and compressed seasons happening all at once.


Every piece is unique and starts with observing little things, little processes, in large landscapes. I live next to one of the largest urban parks in the country, and long walks in these urban wilds is what both sustains and challenges me. My work is both an exploration and a meditation of wild nature in the city; I immortalize seeds of invasive plants, putting them in a different context: I pull apart flowers and reconstruct their parts in a new anatomy. I want to infuse each piece with my own creative style while bringing attention to the unspeakable beauty of natural forms, which all of us   overlook or take for granted.

Photo credit: Tammy Bradshaw Photography Read More