Since Jordan was a little girl, we’ve always had a small garden for our favorite flowers. Our criteria was simple: we planted things that made us happy, a hodge-podge of culinary herbs, bright colorful flowers, medicinal plants, biblical trees, wildflowers, and purposefully cultivated weeds.
As time went on, we started making products from our garden, which culminated with a business called “Michelle and Jordan’s” that supplied The Stanford Inn By The Sea in Mendocino, CA with serums, oils, salt scrubs, specialty soap, spritzers, and–our favorite–herbal salves. Jordan knew every plant by it’s scientific name, and could explain in great detail how to grow it, prepare it, propagate it, and create with it; what it’s companion plant was, whether or not it attracted bees, butterflies or hummingbirds, whether it would became invasive if not controlled (hello Lupine), and when it should be harvested. We created harmonious fragrances of base and high notes. We learned which plants were high in terpenes, sesquiterpenes, and esters. We distilled, dried, macerated, and extracted with oils and alcohols. And, we learned how to preserve them with antioxidants, natural antifungals, and antibacterial botanical blends…which brings us to today.
Today we have a “paint garden” of pigment-yielding plants for making
paint and ink. It feeds our creativity as well as our palette.
“My paintings are more than the images they portray. They are walks along forest paths, searching for colors. They are dirt-covered fingers and pockets full of rocks. They are berries, leaves, and ochres; oxides and lakes; oils, binders, and honey that we’ve grown or collected. They are hours of grinding with mortar and pestle, labeling batches, and recording data. They are conversations, prayers, and ideas, mixed together and applied to the canvas. They are alive with memories and places. When I look at my paintings, I see all of these things.” – Jordan
In this blog category, Paint Garden, we will be discussing specific plants and their traditional and modern uses.
