Please Join Me for TWO Garden Events

The first event is Saturday, April 29 and Sunday May 1st at Fairchild Tropical Gardens at the Food & Garden Festival from 9:30am to 4:30pm

I will be at Fairchild Tropical Gardens this weekend from 9:30 to 4:30 and speaking at 1:30 on Sunday about Art as Eco Activism. I will be explaining the need to plant Milkweed in order to help the low population of Monarch Butterflies. I will have seeds for you to plant and demonstrate how to upcycle a newspaper into a small seedling pot.

Then at another garden...

Please join me Tuesday night, May 3rd from 6:00pm to 8:30pm for the Arts at Saint Johns Common Roots art exhibit at the The Miami Beach Botanical Gardens (across from the Miami Beach Convention Center).

From 6:00pm to 8:30 pm, you can see an exciting show about native plants of Florida. Thirteen artists, including myself, will be exhibiting photographs and paintings in many different mediums. The paintings I will be exhibiting are all done in encaustics (natural bees wax) which are part of my new collection exploring nature within the few miles that I walk each day called: " Behind the Fence." Through these paintings I hope to learn about the nature that surrounds our everyday life by bringing to the forefront all the overlooked inhabitants that we hurriedly pass by in our busy lives; many of which hide in sacred spaces behind guarded fences.

The painting featured above is called: "Missing Monarchs." It is an environmental call to action to inspire people to plant more Milkweed seeds to help the survival of Monarch butterflies who's larvae can only feed on this one particular plant.

The paintings will be installed Tuesday and hang throughout the week concluding with a Go Green event Saturday, May 7 from 9:00am to 12:00pm.

Two beautiful garden events back to back... Hope you can make one of them!

Nancy Martini

Artist

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Encaustic Painting: Missing Monarchs

"Missing Monarchs"

23” x 34” encaustic (beeswax) on wood

This painting was inspired by Milkweed blooming in my garden next to my outdoor studio. I often see Monarchs flutter past me while I paint. I have a lot of butterflies, so I was surprised to learn that in 2002, 270 million Monarch butterflies died due to freezing temperatures while they were wintering in Mexico.

A Boca Raton organization established in 1993 by Chris Singer, Live Monarch Foundation, offers Milkweed seeds for free in order to restore their habitat loss across North America. The Monarch butterflies migrate from the eastern seaboard to the mountains of central Mexico up to Canada and sometimes the butterflies do not survive due to weather, food and human encroachment.

Please consider planting Milkweed in your garden or in a pot on your patio. Each adult Monarch butterfly needs more than one plant to survive. Milkweed is native to Florida, so it will survive happily in your garden.

I have found that children learn to love the environment and its tiny creatures by participating. It's pretty easy to put a few seeds in your garden. I am sure everyone will love watching the Milkweeds grow and to see the Monarch's cycle from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly all in your own backyard.