My 2024 residency at the Mobile Medical Museum allowed me to dive into new kinds of research questions about endemic medicinal plants of Baldwin and Mobile County, provide unorthodox visual and physical interpretations of my results, explore and articulate wide-ranging implications of my research into southeastern humble medical practices and sutures, and communicate and create artwork that combines my interests in mending, medicinal plant history, and natural dyes.” I made the paper, upcycled and foraged for cloth from dumpsters and thrift stores, made the dyes, emulsions, paints, and inks from plant material sustainably foraged in South Alabama for this body or work.

Blood Root-Sanguinaria Candensis     

Blackberry-Rubrus Argutus      

Dogwood-Cornus Florida

Dandelion-Teraxacum Erythrosperum    

Passionflower-Passiflora Incarnata     

Wild Yam - Discorea

Sumac-Rhus Glabra     

Elderberry-Sambucus Candensis

Skullcap-Scutellaria Glabriusunla     

Goldenrod-Solidago

Magnolia-Magnolia Grandiflora     

Yaupon Holly-Ilex Vomitoria

I consider the natural world not only as a source of inspiration or subject to represent, but also as a realm to influence directly—a sphere of action to transform and improve our lives through creative means - I make visual and conceptual links between the use, foraging and storage of medicinal plants with images like stars, snakes, and webs. My research lies at the intersection where scientific understanding, emotional experience and diverse realities and histories exist and it's physically and conceptually very grounded in place. As a queer person in Alabama, I want to assert how natural it is for my body,  community to occupy and commune with a landscape that is often associated with heteronormativity and a bifurcated understanding of identity. I hope to explode these ideas into an embodied visual and written narrative, an environment of shared inner life and concerns that showcases my intimate connection to the natural world and the deep south while also illuminating the diversity of who has been here all along. I am very interested in creating works that extend ontologies between things that are seemingly irrelevant to one another to create new theories, language, or artifacts to create a common ground of reflection and understanding, while fostering equitable and inclusive opportunities through public workshops and conversations. I’m most interested in creating situations where I am expanding our human experience of plants through education, dialogue, and creativity et al. Stories, cloth, and books are so important to me because they are universal, establish our place in the world, aid us in acting wisely, help us to understand others, and pass down knowledge. As an author and writer, I make work that hopes to instill joy and fragile exultation at the beauty of the world, which can for queer people be an act of resistance.

                                                                                   —Douglas Baulos