Toxic Beauties 2020
As I do every spring, I gardened in 2020 while isolating from the pandemic. A neighbor, also doing a lot of planting, developed a noxious rash on her legs and arms. We identified (while distancing) a poison sumac sapling that had rooted in her garden, which she had inadvertently brushed against.
That incident prompted me to research plants surrounding us that ranging from uncomfortably irritating to inexorably fatal. Each plant in this series is native to or is cultivated near my Baltimore studio. However, I find it reassuring that humans have live with these species for hundreds of years avoiding illness by becoming informed about their characteristics and treating them with caution. Most of the toxic species are harmful when ingested. Unfortunately,  children and animals are most often the victims.